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I have seen your children wracked up
in roadside flights from suburban
numbness, car rides of no return
on pot-slicked beer-greased
lonely country shrieks of
sensation-lusting desperation.
I've seen your children crying out
eyes of drunken mothers and loveless
fathers, failing math, wandering
lonesome corridors, and six warning
notices later off to school-time
ski trip, Colorado. Incredible.
I've seen your children's broken hearts
breaking glass breaking ceilings breaking
toilets breaking lockers breaking
whatever the hell they can get their
hands on cause they like to break
your fuckin' heads, and hug you, and
say, Mom, Dad.....
I've seen your children drowning in
tears of suburban dream nightmares, riding
endless superhighway trail from one
high tech corp to another, no exits,
only escape to stoned head existence
in pharmacological nirvana, and
the search goes on.
I've seen your children, scared,
angry, insane with grief, bored beyond
belief, still pregnant with hope, and
sometimes just pregnant, dazed and lost,
without a clue.
And I've seen you skip kid's graduation
for EST Conference on "family communication"
--and don't tell me you "hear me," that
you want to "touch base"...
I say:
silicon chips won't help
tennis courts won't ease despair
forget your shrinking dollars
don't matter
forget property tax indigestion
don't matter
forget Raytheon dream of cornering
market on nuclear terror.
...downward mobility will come as a relief, I promise,
as general impoverishment and savaging unemployment
force us into a new community of pilgrims
flying into the wilderness
to rediscover dependence & love.
Recession, 1982