What makes us great cannot be graded,
What makes us rich cannot be counted,
What makes us happy cannot be bought,
What makes us wanted cannot be caught,
What makes us live cannot be earned,
What makes us love cannot be turned,
What makes us fight cannot be won,
What makes us winners cannot be run,
What makes us strong cannot be held,
What makes us heard cannot be yelled,
What makes us learn cannot be taught,
What makes us dream cannot be thought,
What makes us believe cannot be preached,
What makes us finished cannot be reached

“Technology ruined them”

I find it funny
How you are the ones who raised us
Yet you scoff when we do things
The way we were taught

I find it funny how
“We don’t know real problems”
When we have to live, every day,
With the fear of being shot
At the place where our dreams are supposed to be made possible

I find it funny how
“This generation is lazy”
When you all were the ones who decided
To leave fixing your mess to us

“These kids ruined everything”
I find it funny how
You blame us for your problems
When we aren’t even old enough
To cause damage this deep

I find it funny how we’re “letting beliefs go”
When we’re just trying to lessen the hate
That was forced upon us at an age
When we were young enough
To just see people as people
And never anything less

I find it funny how
I “can’t possibly know anything”
When I dig to find the truth
And you settle for your news outlets
That sink their fangs into you
Like a vampire

I find it funny how
This country is always divided in half
Good and bad, right and wrong
The line’s blurred
With each side thinking they’re
The former
I find it funny how
We have money to fight war
But not to help our poor.
Money to fund big business
But never the mom and pop shop next door

And I find it funny how
No matter what I’m saying
I never get to finish
Because I’m “just a kid”
From the iGeneration

Raised on absence and responsibility
we've moved from one catastrophe
to the next with no moment to pause
and take a collective breath.
We are a generation growing old
adrift on a raft in these choppy
oceans of neglect.
We are atuned to a universe
that doesn't care if we live or die
shoveled into our mouths were promises
of better lives if we got degrees
if we gave up our needs and forsake
or learned a trade or worked long
long hours and never took a break.
But here in the future we're broke
gainfully employed with no hope to retire
no pension party planned
one day, we're expected, to arrive at
the work site and simply die.
No paychecks left to send
no gods left to ask why.
We're a turn of the century generation
watching old mistakes repeat themselves
but being asked to wait our turn
if we wanna complain,
there are two or so generations ahead
of us who still have the floor
and one nipping at our heals
demanding so much more.
I think the world will forget us
and our arbitrary, necessary pain.
I think they move on to Z and Y
and treat them just the same.
Stiff upper lip, chums. It pays to be silent
in fact your silence is brave.
The generation that killed tradition
walks toward the same traditional grave.