Kids these days
live in bars
drinking grossly
staggering home
the kings and queens
of the night
still believing
the world is their bitch
They may have it worse then us
since we already knew better by then
having been raised
in the names
of our dead brothers
in Vietnam.

I was an army brat
watched the First Air Cav
land on the polo fields
in my front yard
My father was a colonel
in the artillery
left over from that last world war
with nothing other to do than stay in
He knew better
and told them to fuck off
when they tried to send him
off to more death
Saw King get killed
and two Kennedys
watched them beat my sister in Chicago
and came close but no cigar
to being sent myself.

So watching these kids now
whooping and laughing
like in junior high
I sometimes think
their awakening
whenever it comes
will be far more cruel
than ours
so many years ago.