Won’t Last Long

Won’t Last Long

these kids
at the ballgame
loud
obnoxious
drunk
slim
and smooth
and beautiful
saying
nothing
but all of it
so goddamned loud
as if somehow
there's more weight
per decibel
in their cackling
about nothing

these kids
full of themselves
and each other
and life
and $14 beers
and vapid stories
spoken
at full volume
simply
for the attention
they so graciously
grant
one another
with the 
me....me....me
of self-satisfied babies
babbling
instead of 
wailing
for their mommy's 
attention

these kids
their precious
tender
moment
in life
before it
really
gets ahold of them
by the hair
the throat
or 
the balls
before
all the mistakes
regrets
and disappoints
take more
than their babbling
beer
and ballgames
to drown
them out

that precious
rare
moment in life
when it seems like
people
might
still care
affordably
and easily
devoid
of the encumbrances
of too many
needs and demands
of too many 
debts
owed
and too many
grievances
unforgettably
filed

these kids
still confident
as cubs
frolicking
in forests and streams
unaware
of the test
for survival
coming
next spring

these kids
drunk
on themselves
the ecstasy 
of a saturday night
before the monday morning 
blues
of 
wives and husbands
children
neighbors
parents
in-laws
and bosses
determining their fate
while none
giving 
a shit
except for what
they can squeeze
out
of these beautifully
obnoxious kids

these kids
drunk on themselves
perhaps
wise enough
to know
having seen
through their parents
exactly what's
on their horizon
too
so these summer days
in the ballpark
their last hoorays
before storming
the beaches
of real
adulthood
knowing
in 10 years
in the same ballpark
or some other stadium
somewhere else
it'll be 30 minutes
worth of dull
demeaning
or backbreaking
labor
for a fucking hotdog
smudged
all over the face
of their little kid
that doesn't even want
and sure as fuck
won't appreciate
it

knowing
in 15 years
the wife or husband
they devoted their life to
won't be there
or
at least
won't care enough
and won't
understand
their predicament
quite like
they should

like another 
ball or strike
their carefree moments
of a withering youth
are already fleeting
so when i'm tempted
to hate 
these beautifully
obnoxious
kids
i say "no.
let them enjoy it,
cause
it only lasts
for an instant."

thank god