My Generation
Look around, look around, they said
and I looked, to see
men of my generation, with brains in their buttocks,
crawling on all-fours,
seeking the great big hole
to pour their great white energy into
men of my generation, balled out,
sitting inside giant sweatshops of the digital age
speaking across the oceans with false voices
to live their big blue dream, powered by Gap, Google and GE
men of my generation, heartless,
suckled by women in turn tortured by a system
into buying the best man available
among a nation of sheep
men of my generation, slaving their virility away
in the service of nations infected with the stink of hypocrisy
blithely led by a bunch of missile toting madmen
into manufactured battlefields of the downtrodden
men of my generation, vacuous and pale,
their brains mutilated by a disease not found in dictionaries
groping for yet another feel of prostituted flesh
while the world around them teeters on the edge of pleasant indifference
men of my generation, lost in the green haze
of the great rat race, cutting and pasting,
borrowed dreams onto their empty life
lurching through a gray fugue induced by easy money
men of my generation, corrupted
by a society, rotten and hollow at the core
demanding its pound of Shylockian flesh
from every man who dares to dream different
men of my generation, cowering
inside Ikea elegance, lost for words,
staring into space and desperately filling the silence
with designer drugs and cosmetic women
men of my generation, loveless and lonely
riding the waves of globalized apathy
as their lives gather the dust of inaction
a new age of the bland and the beautiful
(note: inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s era defining ‘Howl’.)
December 16th, 2005 | Quote
Mermaid: I’ve never subscribed to the view that being gentle is being wek of effeminate. It is definitely a pity that many more men are like that…I can only hope that their numbers increase.
Ô¿Ô: yeah, I agree. with increasing penetration of technology into our lives our lives are becoming dumber I feel!
December 14th, 2005 | Quote
“cowering inside Ikea elegance” I guess this poem is why they say “ignorance is bliss.” It’s almost as if thinking is a curse. This definitely resonated!
December 13th, 2005 | Quote
I wouldn’t even know where to begin with this one. The rtuth hurts, but is it so painfuly real here. I wonder, what would it take to produce the opposite of what you have written? Men who are gentle and original and loving may be called pansies or weak or gay. Fortunately, there are women who appreciate them, so that they do not become another extinct species.
December 12th, 2005 | Quote
Aran: eternal childhood? I don’t thats the apt description here…it is more like pleasant indifference to the state of the world around us.
sita: you always leave behind enigmatic single line messages whenever you comment!
Jai: this style of poetry is new for me and perhaps thats the reason for the connection being lost or perhaps what I see is too personal for others to understand.
December 10th, 2005 | Quote
Good one Anil. But i found it really hard to connect with teh lines, except the commercialisation part, the designer drugs and cosmetic women part is so true.
December 9th, 2005 | Quote
whoa.
December 7th, 2005 | Quote
Liked the last four stanzas Anil. And the ‘lost’ feel of this piece. Seems like we’ve traded responsibilties and love for an eternal childhood and too many insecurities.