We liked Patti Smith, Pat Benatar and Quarterflash.
We drank a lot of wine and bowling alley gin.
The law was 18.
We were going no place, in thrift store leather jackets.
We read French poets, and didn't understand a word.
We had no plans,
But we had each other.
It was grand and glorious and stupid and temporary.
We were as random as a sack of cats.
We thought we were smart;
We were not always wrong.
We were nobody, but we were us.
We were just kids.
________
for Marian's music prompt at Real Toads.
this poem is for J.
I love, love, love this. Just too good, Shay.
ReplyDeleteIf this isn't true, I wish it was, it's so sweet.
ReplyDeleteI love your looking-back poems so much.
ReplyDeletei really like this. i think it is something we can ALL relate to...
ReplyDeleteOh yes, how terribly, wonderfully true, Shay, no matter how long ago we were kids.
ReplyDeleteGood work!
Luv, K
"We were nobody, but we were us." -- how true. Is there a time in our lives when we are more us than when we are young?
ReplyDeleteLoved this, Shay.
Your poem brought me back to my own days of being "grand and glorious and stupid." I liked how you also wove a P.S. title into your poem. I haven't read the book, but it sounds really interesting. Hard to believe that those 2 icons were once just lost kids themselves.
ReplyDelete"random as a sack of cats.." Great line-pure Fireblossom--that's still how my mind works, (or doesn't.) You've definitely captured a generational thing here, Shay. We weren't always wrong in my time, either.
ReplyDeleteOh God to be young and stupid again! And I agree about the random as a sack of cats line - brilliant!
ReplyDeleteHow great! I remember those days when I was young and smart. Wonder when things changed so much.
ReplyDeleteL O V E this!
ReplyDeleteAloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
> < } } ( ° >
smiles...this has a beautiful nostalgia to it...def made me think of days gone by....
ReplyDelete"We were as random as a sack of cats." a creepily good metaphor! I too loved Pat Benatar "because hell is for children." I figured she got me.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't always wrong as a kid,either-just mostly :) I really like this
ReplyDeleteYes we were just kids...sometimes I do the ridiculous just because I can..lol thanks for the memories :)
ReplyDeletegrand and glorious and stupid and temporary and maybe sometimes still that way. hah!
ReplyDeletelove it.
I'm always aware of how music becomes the backdrop of an era, a time of one's life, and you have captured that to perfection in this piece. The repetition of 'We' at the start of the line, really drummed in how personal the songs were to the individual.
ReplyDeleteYour writing often makes me think of the Decemberists. Are you a fan of them?
ReplyDeleteThis made me think of that song, "On the Bus Mall."
You just reached out and grabbed the past, a past I pretty much lived - this was a stellar tribute to Patti and all us "kids' of that time period. LOVED it.
ReplyDeleteyes!
ReplyDelete♥