Sad Cynical Youth

Cynicism soaks in pools of genes

In the swamps of woken hearts unclean.

It festers as smoke in the generation’s lungs

and blossoms ugly as truth tears that rose screen.

They expected to sell us a smile.

and neglected to tell us stories so vile.

By the way,

we atomically bombed our own chemical composition.

Until we were old enough to understand rationale,

and not yet old enough to fathom that sometimes it’s just a conscience cleared.

Those better blinds were just bitter minds backtracking

to a place they could face but it’s safe to say our species is slacking.

Egos never quenched became tanks, became trenches.

While we’re here on park benches or crouched behind white picket fences

we make opaque defences so we can conceal tensions.

In the same day they go on with their day jobs.

They’re all recycling the same jokes from yesterday

and monotony sets in their flesh and their movements.

And they complain about the lives they’re “detained” in

they claim big disdain in somebody’s campaign

’cause they want a big voice but they want it in vain.

They’re not saying anything.

when they’re hollering about police and politicians

when they’re typing out their disappointments based on blind suspicions

to a couple thousand pixels that will tell them congratulations on the opinions.

They offer no proposals.

They’ll sell you single-use truths along with the blues

Patience languished, compassion in the trash and

for the people they complacently ignore they share a habitat with.

they’ve been mean and they’ve earned reprimand.

except you ignore the brilliance they’ve collectively summoned

I can’t call you a liar, you just miscalculate their worth.

they buy rounds for each other in smokey old bars

they pick up hitchhikers in their headed-west cars

and mend each other’s scars with their six string guitars

they’ve looked at their own chemical composition and developed vaccines,

they’ve broken menacing walls and they’ve rebuilt houses

they love one another, their strangers, their spouses.

They are us.

Don’t deny them their worth, when they’ve delivered before

don’t forget that they’re precious, don’t nullify your initial adoration

they’re not just defaulting to war or settling scores

they’ve come a long way from amino to man

and if you think they’re more plague than plan

or they’re anything less than brilliant

recalculate the masses.