What Could We Possibly Tell The Kids?

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

It's All Good Bro

The former Precious Phildren

Arrived late and unaware of what I should have already done

Smashed up somebody’s car without any money or insurance

Lost the paperwork for that other real important application

It’s all good

Shrunk the girlfriend’s favorite sweater small enough to fit a doll

Drove the car with squeaking brakes until they could not be fixed

Dropped beer cans, butts and wrappers all over and then we drove away

It’s all good

Moved to another rental, left a mess and didn’t pay the utilities

Stayed up ‘til 4 with music blaring, through the neighbor’s windows

Plastered my beater with plastic decals, broke down, then walked away

It’s all good

Lived on fast food and froot-loops and forgot to take out the trash

Financed my life on credit cards and invested in gaming equipment

Partied at college for a few years and almost got a worthless degree

It’s all good

Proved myself incompetent at work though regularly late and often sick

Did not finish some lame project that others were depending on

Tried to do a trick on some extreme toy and shattered my wrist

It’s all good

Got fat before I got old while laughing at my parents from the couch

Paid hundreds for my shoes and left them carelessly, somewhere behind

Got all my term papers from some website and dude, I never even read them

It’s all good

Went off to California to become a trick pro snowboarder

Crept back to mommie’s house next spring with a bent and broken shoulder

Bought a crotch rocket on credit and the very first day I lost it on a curve

It’s all good

Had no money for the dentist until my tooth really started hurting

Had two bad temporary jobs and learned to talk an imitation blues

Got an iPod, a cell phone and a gaming laptop but I really hate to read

It’s all good

I’m off the Ritalin and Prozac that my parents forced on me for years

Now I calm my self with shooters and self-medicate with BC bud

I can really skateboard if your company has an opening

It’s all good

The doors don’t work on my car but my speakers cost 500 each

Not into history and all that shit that happened back like in the ‘60s

Looking for more out of life than what my parents expect from me

It’s all good

Despite reality, we retain our positive self images and play well together

Got a couple STDs and maybe a little brain damage from X and the huffing

Looking for my own path in life and volunteering at a Meth lab

It’s all good

Don’t have a need to do the math and I don’t carry any books

Stimulated my brain with Grand Theft and that badass Puff Daddy

I’m really quite alert even though my eyes remain cast down and closed

It’s all good

Left my messes in the kitchen until my roommates all raged

Put the garbage in the yard and then the dogs spread it all around

Cigarettes can’t really hurt me and it’s ok to stay out in the sun

It’s all good

Lost my driver’s license last year at some big rave party

Left home but hooked up with Jerry’s kids to follow Phish all around

Into instant messaging and Twitter keeps me in touch with reality

It’s all good

Went to private school and had my own tutor so everybody sees I’m special

Dyed my hair and pierced my navel and put tattoos on my tongue

Sleeping late and then eating heavily is the way to start the day

It’s all good

Shared music files and network gaming are raising my consciousness

Ordering takeout Thai from my support job saves me time to tweet

Drove the other car my dad gave me until it wouldn’t go no more

It’s all good

Don’t know how the old people got so fat and bald and slow

Spend my time on couches killing electronic thugs and monsters

My friend said her dad’s computer had a virus right after we just used it

It’s all good

I’ve got good taste in food and make $11 an hour on the phone with losers

Sold my guitar amp on eBay but never got the money

It’s like, hey, whatever, just because I can’t find Somfukinstan on a map

It’s all good

Doors closing, potentials shrinking, daylight fading

Doors closing, potentials shrinking, daylight fading, time wasting, excuses multiplying

Systems failing, cadavers stiffening, stores boarding, hopes dashing, futures constricting

Viruses spreading, costs increasing, wages reducing, species disappearing

Baby girl smiling up from food stamp shopping cart

Arms spending, rain dirtying, litter decaying, wounds infecting, fugitives harboring

Advertisers braying, cutbacks rippling, healthcare delaying, emissions ignoring

Beer refreshing, credit shrinking, rivers festering, literacy declining, frogs mutating

Santa Maria in a long skirt, pedaling slowly to hospice

Evil lurking, politicians smirking, bankers grasping, soils disintegrating, blogs croaking

Germs resisting, suburbs vivisecting, dream recurring, heaven awaiting

Studies denying, particulates hanging, entertainment stupefying, executives whining

Mountain trout darting in tiny, steep stream

Faults slipping, choices narrowing, paradigms shifting, bulldozers eviscerating

Cash hemorrhaging, hopes dashing, factories idling, teeth yellowing, ears ringing

Production contracting, jobs outsourcing, homes foreclosing, skies darkening

Apple tree blossoming in empty parking lot

Cattle slaughtering, cancers spreading, cosmetics hiding, results faking, meadows raping

Paint flaking, milk coagulating, lawyers siphoning, lobbyists bribing, budget trimming

Pupils dilating, scandal enveloping, profit taking, depression developing

Blackbirds gathering noisily in trees pushing out leaves

Analysts proclaiming, researchers probing, veils pulling, drapes drawing, curtains lowering

Scenes shifting, mud tracking, hidden seeking, riddles speaking, death cheating

Fairytales smashing, fish flashing, markets crashing, eyes casting, breaks taking

Old meth queen seeking toothless truck stop redemption

Breaths gasping, mines stripping, tails wagging, children begging, feet dragging

Souls losing, bills piling, credit drying, military muscling, signals mixing, whores enticing

Peasants liberating, senses straining, liberal bashing, tranquility trashing, shells raining

Safe reading in small warm light on rainy evening

Rejections automating, pilgrims seeking, preachers groping, nerds networking

Deficits mounting, hopes glimmering, research denigrating, soil eroding, pigs torturing

Music drifting, benefits cutting, retirement postponing, education rejecting, odor cloying

Small box turtle trying to cross busy road, all alone

Sunset amazing, thunder rippling, rainbow shimmering, distinction blurring, years hazing

Quiet shattering, knowledge smattering, reason fleeing, minds making, trouble brewing

Glimpses fleeting, shadows playing, echoes fading, memories remaining, life saving

Abandoned door creaking, opening and closing, only from wind