How
do I stop them as they are toddling towards the shore of that
vulgarly poisoned pond
What
do I say when they ask where all of that trash on the side of the
road comes from
How
do I explain why the sky is a dirty brown so often when we are riding
to their school
Help
me to fit the filthy homeless we see downtown into our rosy picture
of family life
How
do I spin this dust and grime into a happily ever after that a simple
little kid can buy
I
need a way to say we just
can’t afford to try and deal with climate change right now
Let
me convince them that baby jesus knows everything but still let that
Bambi get run over
What
do I say when they ask why our putrid river doesn’t look like the
pretty ones on TV
I
need a good story about why we have to live in this tiny apartment
after our foreclosure
How
do I compete with all the slick ads they have seen when we are out
grocery shopping
How
can I actually convince them that homework is more important than
texting friends
Why
should they listen to me when they see me raging so uselessly at the
endless traffic
What
lessons can I impart to bring sense to this vast de-construction we
call our
progress
What
do I tell them when they show me pictures of songbirds that no longer
visit our yard
Why
would they need to study hard to get into college if Dad just keeps
being outsourced
How
do I show them that our god speaks the truth but all others are false
idols to be smashed
How
do I sell them that healthcare competition gives us a choice of ERs
when they’re sick
Why
would they want to eat anything but colorful, sugar-filled,
fat-ridden, salty, fast foods
What
do I tell them when they say they hate those dirty kids who don’t
speak any English
How
would I make them actually prefer reading to playing first person
shooter games
How
can I convince them that it wasn’t always just mud, garbage, broken
glass and dog goo here
Help
me create a story about being too tired just getting the family by to
try and save
the world
Give
me a child’s takeaway for the shopping carts filled with castoffs
being pushed on city streets
Show
me how to spin this bleak joblessness into a wondrous chance to be
with Daddy all day
What
do I tell them when they ask me where our water comes from and our
poopie goes
What
am I supposed to do when their teachers fill them with guilt over our
CO2 emissions
How
do I weave those poor
frogs with 3 legs into our family tale where
everything is beautiful
Help
me explain why the school says we must make them take their ‘vitamin’
every day
I
need to convince them that once our garbage is out of sight it can
stay out of their minds
They
must internalize that we are the victims of the unplanned effects of
our own scripted actions
They
cannot view our grooming products as causing fish some kind of icky
reproductive issues
They
mustn’t connect our neighborhood runoff with the toxic brew that is
nearby surface water
Let
me explain to them why we must bail out the banks but not the solar
companies
Work
with me to show them why it’s OK to toss out so much stuff after
every trip to McDonalds
Prove
to them its better to go play outside than to sit snacking enjoying
electronic entertainment
Sell
them on employers that will discard them forever at 50 to a society
of Personal
Responsibility
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