Punk Rock Poetry Corner: Bill & Ted's (Not So Excellent) Adjunct Adventure

 

<Movie poster: Wikipedia.com>

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Ran aground: Hit the speed bump

    of social inequity...

The mushroom cloud of student debt,

Service McJobs for subzero wages,

    (Future Self asks):

"How's it going, Bill 'n' Ted Esquire?"

<Bill>
"Not so good, dudes.

We're either temps.
Or adjuncts!"

 
<Future Self>
"Whoa, dudes, no way!"

<Ted>
"Way! No health insurance,

No retirement, no vaaa-caaayyy days...

    Nothin'! And we can get cut loose.
    Any time."

                <Future Self>

            "Don't say anything to Wayne.

            He still thinks he'll get

            To be a rock star.

        And the hair net's only temporary."

<Bill>
It wasn't this way,

Of course, for all us

wiseass slacker kids,

& the big screen dreams

we spent

so much time & money

chasin' around:

<Ted>

Life back then

Felt like

Some kind of crazy quilt

All-nighter @ Empire Records,

& anything felt possible.

<Bill>

You could bash till dawn,

Show up in whatever condition

you'd somehow

gotten yourself into,

<Ted>
& nobody bothered

to look at you sideways,

Give you the onceover,

& you always

had enough left over,

<Future Self>

For the next beer,

For the next Big Gulp,

The next stash,

The next smoke,

The next show,

The next big date...

Whatever. Nowadays?

Don't even bother. 

<"Boomer Retirement Card,"
Take I/The Reckoner>

<Ted>

The hair net & hair clip

Remain on somebody or other's

accessories list

...Along w/the uniform:
Red apron, blue apron, green apron,

Take your pick!

<Bill>
The friendly

Neighborhood record store's

long gone.

Those Wyld Stallynz

Never got 

A moment to roam.

<Ted>

The rock star dreams

Wound up permanently frozen,

on hold: 

<Future Self>

But remember, sucker, 

Nobody promised you

...That life would ever get better.

<Bill>

So bounces the last IOU

From the Boomers,

Who shuffled the cards

<Ted>

& marked up the deck 

of this particular

cardboard cutout empire.

<The Reckoner>

<"Boomer Retirement Card,"
Take II/The Reckoner>

Links To Go
(Read The Headline, Go Figure):
Older Americans Won The Pandemic:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/older-boomers-won-pandemic-becoming-165242402.html