This is a poem about you
The boy who cries himself to sleep at 3 am over
a B average in a cramped dorm room with a roommate who's name you hardly even know
paying thirty thousand dollars for the panic attacks that keep you from sleep
week after week after week,
praying for summer when you can forget for a couple of months
about debt and stress and the 82 percent written on returned essays
in blood
this is a poem about you
the girl who lives on meals stolen in the car ride between jobs
on her feet more than sitting down and paying her karma at 7.25 an hour
desperate for the freedom of adulthood promised to her by adults in her childhood
and deftly wishing to be a princess she used to be told she always was
bitter that Disney films never sangs songs about rent and that
evil witches would be better than overdue credit card bills
and that her teachers never bothered to teach her about APR after her ABCs
leaving her ignorant and desperate and clinging to a resume
like a royal pardon
this is a poem about you
this a poem about you
the person bearing adulthood like shackles,
hiding behind grad school and beer runs
not knowing a life outside of what you've always held sacred and bashing "real life" away with textbooks and internships
seeking refuge in knowledge, because that's all you've ever really had and they can never
take that away from you
this is a poem about you
drinking by yourself at 2 am
tanned red from the computer screen
really, what else is there now
but roommates and weed and a distant dream of a future that doesn't run so fast
this is a poem about you
this is a poem about you
you who lives a life of
yellow lights
speeding to get passed because slowing down means stopping
and you were taught that
stopping means failure,
always
Going faster to get nowhere but knowing that nowhere
surely
has to be better than here, now, so you
break the barriers and keep going and the signs on the road mean nothing to you now
you stopped paying attention to those years ago, you have them memorized and can recite them like a song
you sang when you were nine and standing in a classroom facing a flag
This is a poem about you
who collects speeding tickets like trophies, paying a week's wages in a single
government required transaction and gnashing your teeth but never yielding
This is a poem about you
This is a poem about you
This is a poem about you
This is a poem about the community college full of kids who were brushed off as slackers
taught to be ashamed of their G.E.D.s instead of brandishing them like swords against the world outside
Saying "Here I am, and this is what I earned, what I fought for and cried for and let my family mourn for. This is my blood and spit and vodka stains. Bite me, because it's more than enough."
This is a poem about us
The kids who are told we're lazy because we
squint at the idea of working for nothing and less
This is a poem about us
Who hold friends closer than family that left us cold for our own good,
This is a poem about us
Who wish that we could start at nothing, just like they did, those who call us worthless and selfish
with that we could even out at zero instead of
50 thousand dollars below it
with a service job we were told we'd get a free pass out of with these degrees
this is a poem about us
this is a poem about you
this is a poem about
the kids who are fighting and crying and not given enough credit for making it to tomorrow
this is a poem about reaching with all we have to see sunlight
this is a poem about drinking under the stars and dancing to the music we create with our bodies and hearts
this is a poem about you
and you should be damn proud of it
