light the goddamned house on fire

burn the rickety timbers and we’ll dance in the embers as they fill the air like fireflies

it doesn’t mean a thing

none of it

my knee hurts and my head hurts and some mornings i can’t see shit for fifteen minutes

tired from traipsing along this overgrown path of childhood wishes and adult scars

never gave a thought to growing old in a rocking chair on the front porch while the mosquitoes flit around like minature vampires at dusk

in denial about the dangers of west nile and other virulent warnings

sipping whiskey from a sweating glass while they play the same six songs in rotation like an elevator ride to nowhere

take a baseball bat to the stereo and every mail box from here to kingdom come

this isn’t what the brochure promised

no mention of memory leaking out the hole in the side of my head

or the kids and their trap music

when i was a kid we ran the streets after darkness fell

a pack of screaming misfits popping hood ornaments and smoking cigarettes and drinking forties in brown paper bags

paid someone’s older brother for the booze and stole the smokes from the gas station

now look at us

fat bellies stretching shirts that fit five years ago when we bought them

swollen feet and aching joints

running through adolescence in the vain hope of garnering some respect only to get smashed in the face by the brick wall of responsibility

falling apart the minute we get a handle on what’s expected of us

we seemed smarter then

more attractive

now we are the ones we swore we’d never become

sneaking out to the garage to smoke a joint and reminisce about the old days

old men waxing poetic about all the women we didn’t sleep with

the wild nights

now we sit alone watching the television and bitching about the music being too loud

when did they pull the old switcheroo

take our vibrant brains and pickle them in these decrepit bodies

snake oil and burnt rites

must’ve really pissed off some evil spirits while raising hell down the highway to have ended up in traction watching the world spin by

i say the hell with them all and just light entire thing on fire

always hoped I would die before i got old and now that feels like it isn’t far away and the thought of so much left undone kills me faster than the season rolling by in the blink of an eye

bastards

all of the simpleton bastards with their feelings of being owed something by the universe

she doesn’t owe you shit

she takes

she gives one thing the moment the sperm hits the egg and slowly unravels it all from then on

all you can do is stuff your pockets with as much shit as possible and hope no one notices and scurry off to hide and sleep and eventually die

on repeat

until either it or you gets old enough to just stop going

i sure as hell ain’t there yet

yet

but everyday it gets harder

and harder

and harder

until all the things you want to be soft are too hard

and all the things you want hard don’t work

so i say spit in their fucking eyes and toss a match on the kindling

light the goddamned house on fire