Desired to be more attuned with idols
Their private lives gleaned from
Stills and moving images cutting swaths across
Skyscraping billboards, TV screens
The sides of passing buses
Subway cars headed deeper in,
Further in, beneath
Magazine spreads pulled out for
ad-hoc posters taped and tacked across
the plaster-sputtering suburban drywall paths
Like screams in arctic winds

Many, the young mean-spirited things
Wanting kinship with these enemies
Trying to plot a course to
**** diagonally-up across
their strident wildlife scenes

Attuned with idols riding their
phantom wavelengths with the
maverick assistance of Reds and
water-cut pints of irish whiskey
Then Father comes in proclaiming
to have saved our democracy on
the whim of a lever-pull upon
a municipal voting machine

No interruptions now please
I will direct the favors of my unborn
I am honed in on what really matters:
Hemingway hedonism.
Getting dead with generations
slinking in and out of frame
from before and after
me

Metal dogs roaming the freeway
They flick their smoldering biscuits
They sidle up alongside one another
They veer away whining

There was a haze seated on top
Of the freeway as searchlights
Lit the distant plains from behind like
Projector bulbs of past lives

Channeling their idols spewing
Nicotine like sidewalk stoves beneath
Glowing tubes arranged proclaiming
"Life is better at the beach"

They could do this anywhere
But anywhere is better than here
Monotony will **** you early
They don't want to die like this

How long has the porch light been on
When it's off it still buzzes
Insects still hover around in it in rings
The boy, a brother, their friends
Sneaking acts of quiet rebellion after the parents go to bed
They all grow up, things never change

The haze of boredom blanketing the small sports town
Makes the smoke sting better
How could you be unhappy here?

When you come of age:
You can watch the game on every corner
When the time is right:
Pawn shops that discount their engagement rings
When you settle down here:
[You will just like your parents did]
The schools do not have bars or grates across their many windows
How could you be unhappy here?