On the Arrogance of Youth

This kid in my dual-focus group for addiction recovery 
fits the bill for fast cars with extroverted numbskulls 
propped up like toyguns in the passenger window. 
He talks at length about his parole officer, setbacks 
related to opioids, his pregnant girlfriend. 
He's a member of the TikTok Generation, clinging 
to short attention-spans while nursing contempt 
for the choice. 

They all think they're unique without equal. 
They extend their love & support like so much Valentine's Day 
candy and assume it has a far greater value. 

But give him and his social siblings 8 or 10 years 
while you both study the gradual depletion of the ego 
tempered by mature disagreement. Catalogue the history 
of lies whose every strategy is to preserve the worthless. 
Don't be surprised when the wave of psychic crucifixions 
of laziness and shame come into the flesh in their 30s. 

How adroitly they pivot to stoic responsibility. 
No relief in the subtraction of vice. Just the soft 
mouths stuffed like foie gras with butter. 




**** 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1. The Death of Nathan Rueben (Vulnerability)

1. The Death of Nathan Rueben (Vulnerability)  They moved into the state of Michigan in pairs, in groups of three or larger or significantly larger (less than 5% total of their estimated number arriving by themselves) from the earliest hours of the day of the event, arriving in personal transportation as varied as 2021 Forde Cavaliers and Polaris Sonatas to 1999 Harkomhans and similarly antiquated vehicles and more than a few (less than a thousand) bicycles, motorcycles and choppers traversing the border with busses and with trains from places as far-removed as Utah and Arizona and as local as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, arriving with such staggering consistency as to suggest Rueben's funeral not only contained a psychological weight for each of them in their hearts, in their souls, but that every man, woman and child to the last were implanted with some indominable, irresistible magnet that demanded without exception for their presence and regardless of political or philosophical ...
Read more

Cashier Hassle

Inside my 2nd least-favorite gas station,  for the moment, I just need a pack of cigarettes.  But this overexcited foreigner  is determined  to get on my "good side."  He keeps asking me how work  is going  like I've brought it up before  or he and I have things in common  or he's not one of countless people  doomscrolling my browser history.  I get my cigarettes (and all the  change this time!) and while  this moron presses his empty  luck through regurgitated small  talk, I tell him how unconvinced  I am and remember to go  somewhere else next time.   **** 
Read more

The Only Bad Thing That Ever Happened (complete)

Image
  1.  Feet slung into the air of the living room, bones drunk on equanimity, beer gracefully in hand, God knew something he didn't say. His furry mouth, sweat soaked, the breath like chewed green grapes, and his eyes closed, he would have practically no earthly basis of reason why his life then was to become undone then. Clear-drunk, the high that seems to ease not merely the possibility of damage received, but the fact it had ever been. Warm confidence and purpose in his happy gut, gentle love streaming through his veins, arteries, nerves. Every cell within purged of the trespasses and defilements that he'd been charged with during the centuries and millennia of his strange, agile, balanced and unbalanced existence.  The Great City steamed in the abbreviated winter, sparsely occupied subways more like runaway dogs unguided in their destinations than transporters of any sort of person at all.  The television in God's living room played an ad "paid...
Read more