TBH

1.

Teenagers are pulling their braces off with their bare hands

Illuminating the unlit valley of adolescence with their exposed midriffs

Subjecting mothers to the Sacrament of Contempt

Mothers are crying into their cold-pressed, non-gmo organic juice

The mothers of the mothers have had too much sun

Fragile little snowbirds, their bones are disintegrating

Such extremely low thresholds for enduring discomfort

They can’t even; they just can’t

Nobody asks to be born

Not to mention all that plastic accumulating in the landfill

When they said crisis response planning they meant anti-wrinkle cream

Accustom yourself to plaintive disregard

Nobody asks to be a YouTube instructional video gone wrong

Not to mention all that human trash accumulating in the belly of the whale

2.

Not to mention all that human trash accumulating in the belly of the whale

Nor the invisible doctrine of the invisible hand and its invisible backers

Nor the offshore holdings of the Father and the Son & Sons

Currently in a loss position for tax purposes

Devastating, that feeling we failed ourselves in the land of opportunity

The uncertain sickly appetite to please[1]Think of something meaningful to say to the kids:

TBH, freedom for the pike is death for the minnows

The body keeps the score, our long history of anxiety

In the province of ongoing extirpation

Still, there is the miracle of the softening mud and dog shit, flagrant

Uproar of the Hermit Thrush, the White Throated Sparrow

The Brown Creeper, the Earth turning again toward warm days

The wonder of the Body, TBH, is Its capacity for punishment

3.

The wonder of the body, TBH, is its capacity for punishment

We told our daughters, do not walk through that park; we said

You are a public space & it will not soon end

You are open for business 24/7, sweetheart

That age-old Madonna/“she has no respect for herself” divide

The need to think critically about a safe space

Say yes, say yes to the dress; say no

Say sorry, say my fault; say please

Anyway, what she can or can’t eat is practically all she will think

About, a nuanced dance of tactics and selection

And the Instagram effect now that nature isn’t natural

Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocence

Follow the thought of envy

The rich live, the rich live longer everywhere

4.

The rich live, the rich live longer everywhere

The rich think, the rich think about think-pieces

By think-piece they mean hip & knee replacement surgery

By hip and knee replacement surgery they mean inheritance

By inheritance they mean embrace sincerity

By embrace sincerity they mean deposit the proceeds of social conditioning

They mean to say, efficiency algorithms are their jam

They mean welcome to the so-called sharing economy

We push the walk button; we push the walk button again

We push the walk button again; we are on fire at the intersection

Our bones consumed in the noise, the weather

Some girls imagine they feel worse than they do

They get into a dither just by thinking too much about themselves[2]

5.

They get into a dither just by thinking too much about themselves

Their informational appliances are always at their fingertips

Their fingertips are always on the receiving end

Of the global supply chain, always on the receiving end

Of stand-out online dating profile photos

Always on the receiving end of palatable versions of

Demographically segmented market variables

Always on the receiving end of the body in trouble

Brought on by an insufficiency of imagination & upcycled

Dresses; brought on by the absence of absence

And the plastic particulate matter of a bifurcated heart

Your continued participation serves as express consent

Bring your noise cancelling headphones

The Lord helps those who help themselves

6.

Because the Lord helps those who help themselves

Because all the cats want to dance with the natural mutation

Because of the heat trapping nature of sweet little sixteen

Because of the inability to recall the sequence of traumatic events

Because of the tendency of attention to be affected by recurring thoughts

Because of record breaking high temperatures

Because of mitigation and adaptation

Because of benzodiazepine

Because of twenty-one words used to describe only women

Because of sharks, dogs, mountains, elevators and mosquitoes

Because of black legged ticks and American presidential elections

Because of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

Because of smiley face emoticons

Because of clinical levels of acquisitiveness

7.

Because of clinical levels of acquisitiveness

And all the angels & saints in their “spiritual gangster” t-shirts

All the latest patrons of leisure, style, and taste

All the latest patrons of teenaged girls, angular and hungry

Feeling their supreme moment of destiny

Teenaged girls waiting to spring into time

And by time they mean take their husband’s name

And by all the angels & saints they mean reality TV stars

They mean they have no sense of their over-determined circumstances

This poem is bitter; this poem has gone to fat

This poem is crushing the dreams of teenaged girls

It tells them they are still unloved

But those girls are laughing and this poem is an old bitch

And, teenagers are pulling their braces off with their bare hands

[1] Sonnet 147

[2] You’re a Young Lady Now, 1961