Down the Drain

In a book called "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," I found a poem. Here it is:

"Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Chops"
because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born
with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it

Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn"
because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because of its new paint
And the kids told him
that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometimes they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed
when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why
his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
when he cried for him to do it.

Once on a paper torn from his notebook
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question"
because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly

That's why on the back of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door
because this time he didn't think
he could reach the kitchen."

A couple of days ago I showed it to my best friend, because she writes dark poetry and I thought she might...idunno, enjoy it? be inspired? Anyways, I was thinking about how life starts out great and ends up awful. For instance, when my brother Adam was too little to be in my life much, I had a great life. Now that same brother is only in fifth grade, and swears too much for someone his age. Now I find out he's been skipping homework, and lying about it to his teacher and to Mom. *insert Picard Facepalm here* He's such an idiot. Why the hell does he think that if he doesn't put any work into anything, it will all turn out wonderful in the end?! He thinks life is so simple. When I was in fricking third grade I knew better than to think that way.

So many young people I see at school think that way as well. Most of them don't realize that if they skip their homework and do drugs, they can still have a great life when they're older. Well how do they expect to get money if they drop out of (or fail) high school? Do they really want to live off of their parent's money all their lives and eat McDonalds and either die before their parents or have no money once their parents are dead? American society is slowly degrading, dissolving, disintigrating, slowly but steadily collapsing into nothing. And someday, there won't be any way to fix it. It's only the people like me who might as well have no voice seeing as how much people listen to us, who can see what is happening and what may fix it.

Sometimes I really wish I would've been born on a planet of peaceful, wise peoples working towards a society worth living in.