Prologue:
The Period:
Dickens Redux

It was the best of times,
     it was the worst of times;
It was the age of wisdom,
     it was the age of daytime TV talk shows;
It was the epoch of air-conditioning,
     it was the season of my sweaty scrotum sac;
It was the spring of innocence,
     it was the winter of wild experimentation
     with autoerotic asphyxiation;
It was the age of “So, what’s on your mind?” —
     it was the age of “Shut the fuck up.”