Teenage Angst
High dudgeon is the proper mood of teenage revolution,
and their parents’ interference will not aid in its dilution.
Tactics that they utilize to make their children straight
do little to sort it out, and instead, agitate,
creating more rebellion. So, leave them to their snit.
By the time they’re twenty, they’ll grow out of it!
words today are dudgeon, interference, revolution, utilize, straight.
Only Child
She wants to trade her parents for contemporary versions.
She cannot stand their constant recital of aversions.
When it comes to expectations, their rule list never ends.
They derogate her clothes choice and her makeup and her friends.
When she wants to go on overnights, they won’t give their consent.
They never understand her or hear what she really meant.
Her dating makes them nervous. They wait up ’til she gets in,
then interrogate her as to what she’s done and where she’s been.
When it comes to parents, she got the rawest deal.
The schism that’s between them it seems will never heal.
Would she had an older sister who was ill-behaved and wild
to detract attention from this wretched only-child!
Prompt words today are nervous, consent, schism, derogate and trade.
Late Starter
He called his dad a troglodyte, his sisters, basket cases,
although he was not brash enough to do so to their faces.
He felt himself the underdog—blamed for everything.
He felt his wings were clipped, although he dreamed of taking wing.
Someday he would spring the trap and he would show them all.
But until that day, he’d simply hang out at the mall,
checking out the chicks and panhandling when he could.
He knew he could do great things and some day he would,
but no one gave him chances. The Mexicans and Arabs
with their Virgin Marias and their half-moons and their scarabs
were taking all his jobs away. He didn’t even try.
Why should a decent white guy bother to apply?
How dare his dad declare that he has nothing on the ball?
He is kept plenty busy holding up this wall.
When the other wall is built, his life will come together.
He’ll get some fancy job and break the family tether.
Get a real cool crash pad and party with his friends.
He’ll make some just as soon as this foreign invasion ends.
Time enough for school once Trump takes out the trash.
Then he’ll ace his classes and rake in the cash.
He’ll show every idiot who claims he is a bum
that he is the genius. He’ll show them who is dumb!
Those guys who hang out at the mall in every sort of weather?
If we could read their thoughts, they just might be birds of a feather.
Prompt words for the day are troglodyte, brash, underdog, spring. Mall photo by Neel Tailor, used with permission. Other photos by Judy D-B.
Nostalgia Reexamined
The sublimity remembered when memory has its turn
often has beginnings in nostalgia’s timely churn.
That teenage bliss that we recall as being overjoyed
if remembered correctly would be being over-boyed.
Our adoration of the past is easier than giving
all the same attention to the life that we are living.
Prompt words today are nostalgia, overjoyed, adoration and sublimity.
Teenage Angst
If you tend to be secretive and crave a private zone,
yearn to denounce your family and set out on your own,
at first they’ll cling like mistletoe, refuse to set you free.
You’ll think they’re never going to simply let you be.
But time will set you free. You’ll see your family disappear,
and that is when I’m fairly sure, you’ll wish that they were here.
Prompt words today are family, denounce, secretive and mistletoe.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/rdp-wednesday-family/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/19/fowc-with-fandango-denounce/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/secretive/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/your-daily-word-prompt-mistletoe-December-19-2018/
1960, Murdo grade school’s 7th and 8th grade, first boy-girl party in the unfinished basement of our “new” house. I’m the tallest girl in the 8th grade, dancing with the shortest boy in the 7th grade. I have on two different dresses in these photos taken on the same night. I ripped the side seam out of the first one trying to duck under someone’s arm during the first dance. I had to go change into one of my older sister’s dresses. Click on photos to enlarge.
Adolescence
Awkward pauses, awkward poses.
Awkward stances, offering roses.
Teens are natural at this.
First date, first crush, first awkward kiss.
Stumbling to stand like newborn colt,
One day suave, just now a dolt.
All creatures need to learn to be
what they’ll be one day effortlessly.
We learn our lessons through mistakes—
missed swings at balls and fallen cakes.
There’ll be missteps. That die is cast,
but adolescence does not last.
I’ve used this photo before, but the poem is new. The prompt today is awkward.
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 