all the world was in black and white

the world was different some fifty years ago

when photos were glossy, but harder to picture

and you didn't have a second time to shoot

to frame the dark, the light, and the subject.

when Chronkite would say "that's the way it was"

and nobody watched past one in the morning,

i played with a Kodak hidden under the Pine

the finest plaid-wrapped present in the 1970s.

truth comes out following the finishing of a roll of film

like the photo of Santa's cookies where i drank Santa's milk

when we watched all the people a-passin' the peace

and the pretty girl beside me kissed me right on the lips

back when all the world was in black and white 

when we didn't have a clue about the absence of color

i captured a moment of everybody's time

in the window of my very first Kodak camera.