Kumbaya

 

–I saw the storm pass over

& the skyline littered with dreams.

I saw the best of my generation fall

& our metaphors recede.

–

I saw the grownups playing dirty

while the kids did cocaine.

“You only live once.”

–

YOLO.

No shame.

–

We are the children of the YOLO.

Father Time, we call f*ggot.

We don’t love life.

We grab it by the hair and shag it.

–

We take this shit with bravado:

straight, no chaser —

like a bullet to the brain.

We dubstep in the moonlight,

dropping the bass

like

drones

drop

bombs

on

kids.

–

“This is the Voice”

but it is the voice of global pain.

We saw how our elders play with lives.

–

Fuck that.

–

We’re just going to get fucked up again.

–

Our TVs are mini-coliseums

for us to watch our neighbors bleed.

This is the Third Commandment:

buy yourself some damn good weed.

–

All we have are First World problems

but they weigh on us just the same.

Third World problems are for missions trips,

We call them the Hunger Games.

–

I saw the storm pass over

& the skyline littered with dreams.

I saw the best of my generation fall

& our metaphors recede.

–

Jesus turned water into wine

but jack shit into Xanax.

Now we can’t go to church.

We’re so purpose driven,

we’re manic.

(We need Xanax.)

(Give us Barabbas.)

–

These drugs are gifts from God,

signs of the times.

–

We are a city on a hill,

our teeth stained with wine and we’re

doped out on meds to the point that

we shine our drugged smiles from coast to shining coast.

–

We can’t hide it under a bushel, no!

We are going to let it shine

and roast

because

We.

Can’t.

Fucking.

Stop.

–

I see us shake

& drop

& it’s Kumbaya, lord,

I wish I could feel again

& stop my skin from crawling.

It’s Kumbaya, lord,

I wish I could feel less.

All I see on Facebook

is people liking

this whole fucking mess

& somedays I just wish that

life had a link to log out.

Some days I wish I could

undo your caps lock

so you would whisper,

not shout.

–

(There are dull chainsaws

ripping up my stomach

like empathy on crack.)

–

I saw the storm pass over

& the skyline littered with dreams.

I saw the best of my generation fall

& our metaphors recede.

–

We are Generation LOL —

with 50 Shades of AMAs —

but Joshua got fired for harassment,

& Ruth is 16 and pregnant from rape.

–

Ruth is 16

& pregnant from rape.

–

Esther OD’ed.

Conversion didn’t take.

–

This, then, is how the world ends:

not with a bang,

neither with a whimper.

–

It ends with you puking

& me holding your hair

back from your face.

–

You had one too many cocktails

aptly named “Amazing Grace.”

–

I saw the storm pass over

& the skyline littered with dreams.

I saw the best of my generation fall

& our metaphors recede.