Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash

I desire so badly, so strongly to go back to the ’80s back when it was a simpler time. No crazy, no Corona. Back before I made bad choices that took away my adult life. If I could just go back, back when, then maybe I could change it. Ah dreams!

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Oh, if we had a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor, then we could go back … 

Back when

We all wanted to go “Back to the Future” but just had to wait.

Oh, can’t we go back?

Back when Milli Vanilli was at the top of the charts, before the fraud.

And before Michael Jackson was “Bad” and he would just “Beat It” with “Billie Jean.”

Back when we had “Simple Minds,” “Don’t You Forget About Me”

And if you wanted to “phone home” you had to wait ’till we got there.

Back before all the rush and Instagram.

Back “When Harry Met Sally” and Huey Lewis said “I want a new drug” but it was just the “Power of Love.”

You remember, this was back when John Hughes painted the ’80s “Pretty in Pink”, and he gave us all a “Sweet 16”, and we all served detention with the “Breakfast Club”. 

Another John told us to “hold onto 16 as long as you can, changes come around too soon…”

This was back when Corona was just a beer, and “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

When the Prez used to be an actor, and not just a character.

Oh can’t we go back to the ’80s?

Back when I “Can’t Fight This Feeling” but that was “My Prerogative.” We didn’t care about “Rumors”! Can’t we just “Turn Back Time”? 

Back when we all wanted to be an “Urban Cowboy” but only from “9 to 5”.

And then we partied like it was “1999” but only in the “Purple Rain.” This was Back when Madonna was “Like a Virgin” and Cyndi, “She’s So Unusual” but you know “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, I wish “Time After Time” that we can go back. 

Back when “We Didn’t Start the Fire” but we were “Dancing in the Streets” because “We Built This City” and we were “Born in the USA.”

And when we wanted to get away from it all, we went down to “Kokomo.”

Back when we were told, “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” “Just Say No” and to “Just Do It”. 

Back when a “Careless Whisper” made us have “Faith” in our “Father Figure.”

Where “Heaven is a Place on Earth” and we all wanted to be as funny as a “Beverly Hills Cop” in “Coming to America.” Oh can’t we be the ones “Trading Places”?

Back when we all wanted to be like the Duke Boys, never meaning no harm and we were all asking “Who shot JR?”

Oh ’80s where have you gone and how can we get back there?

We miss you, “Goodbye Norma Jean”

And I guess that’s why they call it the blues!

 
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. The Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer’s identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned. The work is lightly edited but has not been otherwise fact-checked.

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David Jones

David Jones is a writer incarcerated at Price Daniel Unit in Synder, Texas. He believes that a change in perception allows one to see the world in a broader way.