Whatever.

They pulled in just behind the fridge
He lays her down, he frowns
“Gee my life’s a funny thing, am I still too young?”
He kissed her then and there
She took his ring, took his babies
It took him minutes, took her nowhere
Heaven knows, she’d have taken anything, but

All night
She wants the young American
Young American, young American, she wants the young American
All right
She wants the young American

Scanning life through the picture windows
She finds the slinky vagabond
He coughs as he passes her Ford Mustang, but
Heaven forbid, she’ll take anything
But the freak, and his type, all for nothing
He misses a step and cuts his hand, but
Showing nothing, he swoops like a song
She cries “Where have all Papa’s heroes gone?”

All night
She wants the young American
Young American, young American, she wants the young American
All right
She wants the young American

All the way from Washington
Her bread-winner begs off the bathroom floor
“We live for just these twenty years
Do we have to die for the fifty more?”

All night
He wants the young American
Young American, young American, he wants the young American
All right
He wants the young American

Do you remember, your President Nixon?
Do you remember, the bills you have to pay
Or even yesterday?

Have you been an un-American?
Just you and your idol singing falsetto ’bout
Leather, leather everywhere, and
Not a myth left from the ghetto
Well, well, well, would you carry a pistol
In case, just in case of depression
Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors
Blushing at all the Afro-Sheeners
Ain’t that close to love?
Well, ain’t that poster love?
Well, it ain’t that Barbie doll
Her heart’s been broken just like you have

All night
You want the young American
Young American, young American, you want the young American
All right
You want the young American

You ain’t a pimp and you ain’t a hustler
A pimp’s got a Caddy and a lady’s got a Chrysler
Black’s got respect, and white’s got his soul train
Mama’s got cramps, and look at your hands shake
I heard the news today, oh boy
I got a suite and you got defeat
Ain’t there a man you can say no more?
And, ain’t there a woman I can sock on the jaw?
And, ain’t there a child I can hold without judging?
Ain’t there a pen that will write before they die?
Ain’t you proud that you’ve still got faces?

Ain’t there one damn song that can make me
break down and cry?

All night
I want the young American
Young American, young American, I want the young American
All right
I want the young American
Young American
Young American, young American, I want the young American
(I want with you, I want with you want)
All right
(You want it, I want you you, you want I, I want you want)
Young American, young American, I want the young American
(I want to want, to want, to want , to want I, I want you)
All right
(Lord I wanted the young American)
(young American)
Young American, Young American
I want the young American

Exhaustion of the goddamn mind and heart and soul.

Gross, I’m so tired of sad pangs of still ‘being in love’ stupidly, blindly, lame-ly, unreciprocated-ly, uselessly. Shake it off already.

On remembering a friend.

I think I met him because he came into my work a lot. Soft spoken with glasses, craggy and quirky, though not to an embarrassing level. I had his work nametag. He was from Lancaster. We spent so much time with him. We skipped school (I waited until junior year or so, because I was absolutely yellow about it all) and we’d meet him at Shoney’s, or Waffle House. We saw Sleepy Hollow the day it opened. We never got in trouble. We went all over South Carolina. We ended up around his home; he had such a strange relationship with his family, he was so unlike them. We found a nature reserve, where I pulled my friend’s long sleeves behind her back, punched her in the jaw and she fell down to the gravel right next to a spider, and I took off running toward a man-made lake to throw rocks at ducks. It wasn’t as violent as it sounds, trust me. We found a dollar store and I bought romance novels for the covers. For some reason (yet neither gay nor goth) he bought an eyebrow pencil at the drugstore thinking it was eyeliner, it “didn’t work right” so he gave it to me. I still have it. I’m still using it. It hasn’t run out since the late nineties.

He made the decision to join the Air Force. I remember saying good-bye to him at a hotel on Wilkinson Boulevard. It was where all the people were meeting to leave for boot camp the next morning. I think we ate in the hotel restaurant. He gave me some personal effects, including a book in the Red Dwarf series and Cornelius – Fantasma (we liked all the little japanese meows).

A couple years later he was in Alaska. He said he got fat because there was nothing to do there but eat. Now he’s back to normal and living in California, almost finished with the air force. I wonder what he’s like. I wonder if he’s still soft spoken and craggy.