Generation Why

by Brian Jude

"Hoo-ray for too-day!" shouts the mad hatted toastmaster general

into a wireless date-rape microphone
plugged into wild bisexual public address
harbingering to a world of disguided chronic youth

Muddy megamoshpit soiree frenzy propels through fiber optics

to livingroom Shouldawouldacouldstock arena via MTV
where it's sunny and warm at 3:11am in January
and namelessthis veejays praise their fifteen minutes

Barmender, whip me up a Screaming Skagasm

to wash down this real big phish bone chunky lump clump
of fruit of the gloom beatnut putter & pearl jam sandwich
that's stuck like potato paste to my mouthroof!

Give me nowsound or give me retro's forgotten troubadours -

I can't take no more Eagles or Stevie Nicks
unless it's sampled into a block-rockin' beat
beneath Doorslike board chords or rip-roarin' horns

Hip-hop is hip, Pop - great grandson of jazz

with rap the scatted ebonic proverbs of urban eminence,
mixed signals of hate and sex and woe and harmony,
all with the same aestheticism & honesty & relevance

Disco is dead-head in a tie-dried leisure suit

with jumbo jet collar drinking a Pabst,
retaining reincarnate memories woven into nowness -
out with the mold and in with the old

Baggy bellbottoms are swank with Doc Martin clogs

mingling with Hilfiger sweatshirts and Ren Fair-wear jewelery,
but ixnay on the onsCay that were hot & cheap back in the day -
time to transend fashion to transcend time

Black clad vampire flappers with pinstriped hair

black nails, and pin-cushion body piercings
surrogating ankhs for transfixing crucifixes -
walking dead digs life over death

Skullcaps cover shaven heads that confuse yesterdecade's skins,

their stubbly goats genuflecting to corded yin-yangs,
suspended peace signs, and gyrating love symbols-
racism is for square cats mewed by their own ignorance

Modern English melts the world in department store muzak mania

while Weeniebopper gumstick girls gossip in dialect of Chumbawumbese
and take turns tuning timedials transmitted into guinea-tee teacups
with precious Jewels that are on sale months prior to their season

Mall rats muster away payday at the gigaplex buffet

where wannabe moviestar concession stand clerks
are busy tracing Amy into their screenplays
in their dogmatic attempt to ask a generation why

Generation X was a band from the '70's

before Billy yelled rebelliously without a face
only to move to PopMart discount dumpsters
while Elton and Keith go to war with no armies

And good old Joel's retired from rock 'n roll

his swan song a tune from the basement of Zimmerman
whose progeny cruises with one headlight
non-stop to chart-top pop dominance

Mick's two-thousand men have arrived too early

infecting preteen hard drives with venereal cyberviruses
and the federal hovernment can't stop Bill Gates-
love free and frisky is still risky even on line

LL Cool J believes in extraterrestrials but can't explain 'em;

Lennon believed he spotted them hanging out in Chelsea,
Noel Gallagher doesn't believe he's Jesus Christ,
and R Kelly believes he can fly

Alice, in vain, smashes frumpkins with nine inch grails

in protest of her mighty mighty boss's tone of choice
as Weezer and his sister Hazel pipe verve into rancid candleboxes
while hoarding great mouthfuls of Squirrel Nut Cheerios

Public institutions close in observance of Green Day

while Mickey Mouse goes out of his third-eye mind,
donating fireworks and electric lights to Hong Kong;
and so Scorcese gets turned on to Tibetan freedom

Next shore neighbor's natural born reservoir frogs pump friction

into true four-room romance from musk til yawn -
soft and fuzzy celluloid jackets are machine washable in warm water;
recycling is as hip in art and fashion as it is in life

Dog-Eat-Dog parents provide their offspring with TLC through cartoon noir

in pursuit of a temporary respite from the world they know -
Tickle me this, Scatman:
Which nanny is the more famous television star?

Katrina walked on sunshine fourteen years before Smash Mouth -

Bush was not/was a president of the United States of America -
Metallica has evolved from its root yet retains the name -
Everything is alternative to everything else

Does anybody here remember Camper Van Beethoven???

How did the princely artist know how to party in 1999 a decade & a half earlier?
What can't Alanis do on television?
And just who is this Foo that folks are fighting?

Flappers, GI guys & dames, beats, hoods, hippies, yuppies, Gen X, and who's next?

Who's to say where one begins and the next ends?
Every generation since Eden is beat -
St. Ginsberg, hear our prayer!

© Brian Jude

Back to My Poetry Page.

| Home | Autobiography Abridged | Wedding Page | Personal Philosophies | My Poetry | Links |