Growing Up Punk

Dan came and went without much fanfare

but that's the way it goes with the old crew

It's been years and half a country's travel

but it's just coming over

having a couple of beers

sharing space

where there's always space to spare

It's not to say it wasn't a pleasure

He's easy on the nerves,

good humored, and up for anything

Besides,

seeing any of that lot

always leaves me shaking my head

Everything has changed

but everyone's the same

Maybe a little mellower,

a bit more sure-footed,

but otherwise unchanged

I grew up punk as fuck

sure as shit that no one over thirty

could be trusted with a pocket knife

I assume most of us did

and when Cobain pulled the trigger

I think,

subconsciously,

that suspicion was confirmed

Maybe he was convinced

he was ahead of his time

and when he didn't see the light

at the end of the tunnel of success

he figured it wasn't going to come at all

Maybe he saw another underpass in the distance

or

realized there was never any tube to begin with

either way,

I never thought he was much of a voice for anybody

and what he saw rounding the corner of 3 decades

I aint yet seen in the way of anyone I know

The last night Dan was here,

he got drunk enough to make small talk

like he does

like every question

requires an overcoming of some mental blockade

so each simple inquiry is blurted out

with just a little too much urgency,

and a bit more volume than is normal for him,

appearing just that much more dire

& worth some well thought-out reply

I've always been sure it was unintentional

but I still get a kick out of it

thinking too deep about some simple question

I wonder if everyone does that to him

after all these years

I've never asked

Settling

I was sure moving up north

I'd be free of the long humid summer

but I've been changing shirts twice a day

and the local paper says at least once a week

that the end is near

nothing above 80 degrees

for the rest of the year

I know it's hard to pinpoint the end

I don't blame them for being cheerfully optimistic

but I don't think you should look at a newspaper

like its got special needs

Spent the whole four day weekend

tossing around opinions about politics

talking about farming

drinking beer

and wondering what of all you hear these days

is and isn't a load of bullshit

It would be easy to think

that everyone's been fooled

and every gripe they grumble

is the product of some talking head

running through the streets

on fire

& in HD

I bought a leather chair thinking

maybe global warming was just such a sham

Sometimes we're wrong

and we've got no choice

but to stick to it