They’re Already There*

By kurafire on Flickr

On the corner the kids are stopping each other
and talking like travelers of the world.

I’ve seen them make themselves dirty,
desperate like Mad Max
or Rimbaud in the alley.

But Eliot didn’t work any less
at his passion,

and he held down a bank job,
wrote The Waste Land.

But in this spoiled little town
so much depends on
looking like you live on the edge
everyone else has forgotten.

It’s an easy fashion when you’re 19. I’m not,
and when was the last time
you heard someone mention Eliot?

*or "More Proof I Am Getting Old"