*****

Recorded Reading (2:38): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/a5co06jz671e2hoi0vklu/The-Runaways.mp3?rlkey=i4fvoifhfit8l6dvwfxllqwuw&dl=0

*****

The Runaways

Why are the kids
Zoning out on a game?
No kind of influence
That we can name…

Tomorrow they’ll be forced
To try to be cool
Surviving our deadly
Mandatory school

Where little’s explained
Will enable them fully,
But they will get blamed
For fighting a bully

Be taught just sufficiently,
Learn just enough,
Safely manufacture
Intelligent stuff

For those more entitled
And lofty than they
For which they can never
In their whole lifetime pay

Nor find sweet relief —
After they roam
Their cold, callused youthful
Horizons — come home

Mom and dad fighting,
And on the TV
Images awful
Can images be

Covered by skies swiftly
Turning to grey,
Under our factories,
Cranking away

Beneath such excessive
Lighting — so bright
For miles all around
There’s no such thing as night

The water tastes awful,
So buy them a bottle
Of poisonous bubbles
To pour down the throttle

If we talk to them
It’s impatiently
From the ends of our tethers
Where we ourselves be

There are no birds singing
In the memory
Of their early childhood
No pictures they see

Of whole flocks of migrating
Or feeding fowl
All turning together,
Nor one single owl —

Never looked into
The eyes of a herd
Of animals which yet
Uncaptive were

No running in fields
With their kites all fly free —
When under surveillance
Supervisory

All barren stark angles,
Graffiti and dough,
The petty advantage
Of someone you know

Whom you did a favor
Some crisis before,
So now they can’t show you
The reas’nable door

Knowing that you
Did — not just your part
From a clear, open
And generous heart

But fully expecting,
Demanding it, too,
That every bit of that
Come back to you —

The eye-rolling, smirking
Insinuations,
Cleverly smothered
Destructive creations

By which we establish,
Like animals, the
Adulatory
King and Queen Bee

Yes, look at that spaced-out
Gaming young pup
Seems to have no int’rest
In growing up!

I don’t understand
These young people today —
As though from something
They’re running away

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and begin to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level ~ still working to contribute to her society, however, seven days a week.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S. It does take several days for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

Thank you for supporting quality in the fine arts.