Remembering High School
We asked for birth control
they gave us crowd control.
We blew their minds
rewrote the rules
retraced the chalk lines
FAR the FUCK OUT
Can you dig it?
We grew up with Nixon, Tricky Dick
Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice
We explored our feelings, ignored curfews
experimented with drugs, sex, rock and roll
So sure
we could change the world
hanging out
in our string bikinis
down by the town pool
drenched in iodine and baby oil
SO RED,
SO BROWN,
SO COOL.
Here’s to
hanging out
on the wall in front the High School
checking it out
as streakers flashed by
as red necks chased queers for fun
to draftees sent to `Nam with a gun
from the hippie that dodged to Canada and split
to the trailer trash DICK-- screwing jailbait chicks
naïve chicks
that bought the white picket lie
and snatched a rotten slice
of the American
pie.
Here’s to Peace
the Beatles, the Rolling Stones
the fuel rationing in ‘73
the boy who stole our heart in September
the one they drafted in November
when we were so groovy, gullible.
Here's to the good old days
chilling at THE
WELL
the local dive
where we danced past two with Three Dog Night
and got over on the old man and old lady
MAN-- they were SO UPTIGHT!
Here's to
forging excuses
detention with good old Mr. C.
Here's to cold dead frogs best not inhaled
but if you must
only after the LSD and beer keg chaser.
Here’s to
smoking Marlboro red
inhaling
Pizza and Diet Coke
Hamburgers and Diet Coke
Chilidogs and Diet Coke
Here’s to cold
white-faced corpses
sixteen and seventeen
on the DRUNK and HIGH-way to graduation
from FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL.
Here’s to
Dream on
Sock it to me
Black Panther pride
In Your Face
Mood rings
New York East Side
Here’s to
belly buttons, bell bottoms
and gold pierced lobes
two inch heels,
and that was the guys,
banana seats
and hip-hugging roads
miles and miles
of tall dense pine
poking
through third eye mind
learning to deal, as life unwinds.
Flash forward
here we are
in our fifties
fighting
our bulging hips and waistlines
thinning hairlines
CANCER
Finding Jesus
poking
through the dumpster
high on Spice
fresh out of fish and followers.
Now I ask you, is this expanding your consciousness?
Because If it is
I want to roll over and consider
the psychedelic spider web in my brain
or better yet
the really huge one
on top of the kitchen cabinet
reconsider the pros and cons
the gravity of my CHOICES
explore my inner Zen voice, some more.
So I’m asking JESUS,
what’s it all about
tell it to me straight, I can handle it!
BTW Man, are you done bogarting that joint?
I’m just saying…
Our Route 66, our Highway to Heaven, our Good Times
our COOL, our COPACETIC, our CRAZY
we DID define!
Can you dig it?
©Connie DeDona 7-25-12
