me/free

by Ashley Gilbert

By their early twenties
half the population
is already burnt out,
or so they claim,
maybe they never
really had a flame.
cause you know the young:
disenfranchised
disenchanted
disaffected
apathetic.
We are your youth,
born in the era of "me"
damn-
it feels great to be free.

We are the future,
the writing on your walls,
some of us are singing
of the beauty
the world forgets to see,
some of us are chanting,
some of us are fighting,
most of us are just drifting
-can'can't get enough
of this feeling called free.

'cause we are free to buy
free to learn,
free to close our eyes
to the truths
we know are there.
We're taught to join the system,
to propagate
perpetuate
and integrate into the mainstream.

Those people on the streets,
well, they just fucked their lives,
not adept enough to adapt.
Or maybe they withdrew,
thought they start anew,
build another system,
deviants one and all.
I've gotta say,
I hope the right will fall.

Am I what they call free?
Show me how to be
outside the expectations
of this society.
cause any time
you step outside the norm,
you're told you're in the wrong.
You're told to be polite,
we should all just get along.
So jump on in the current,
stop swimming up the stream,
perpetuate the world we have,
and live the Western dream.