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

Punk Rock Poetry Corner: At One Time...

Ana Vujic: "Birth School Work Death"

(Mixed media on wood, private collection, 2014)
http://www.gallery-daeppen.com/_artists/ana_vujic/index.php

At One Time...

<Birth>

At one time...you could go shopping for fun, spend hours at the mall, and still have money left over when you were done.

At one time...two parents didn't sweat like dogs...just to afford
all those wonderful toys at the mall.

At one time...families could afford two weeks' vacation a year,
stay in a hotel each night, and enjoy some meals out.

At one time...you could actually buy groceries,

and not feel like you needed a bank loan.

At one time...you could visit long-distance relatives and friends
a couple of times a year (even on weekends)...
...and afford the gas to get there.

At one time...people got involved in what happened around them.
Now, they just don't seem to care,
no matter how crazy it gets.

<School>

At one time...civics courses were standard K-12 fare.  Today, they're drowned out by the drumbeat of standardized tests.

At one time...you had to know what the Constitution and

the Bill of Rights said (and they also taught you

something about early American history).

At one time...people could identify Vietnam

or Norway on a map without hesitation.

At one time...schools looked out for every student's needs,

and didn't try to make everybody the same.

At one time...you could afford the promises of college...when

the regimes in charge offered more grants than loans.

<Work>

At one time...people stayed in the same place, and weren't forced
to move every few years, just to make a living.

At one time...even a minimum wage office job (boring as it was)
offered some sort of hedge against moving every few years
(until those jobs eventually dried up).

At one time...banks competed for customers' loyalties,
based on interest rates. Today, they slap fees
on every ounce of your slavery.

At one time...businesses were smaller, and didn't draw big red lines
through the communities they pretended to serve.

At one time...if people were practical and frugal,
they put something away for a rainy day.

At one time...many people lived on farms
and felt rewarded for the fruits of their labors.

<Death>

At one time...we would never have questioned
if “Solyent Green” felt like a documentary.

At one time...working till you dropped sounded like something 

out of a bad science fiction novel, 

or a cheesy '70s movie.

Today, life is the stuff

of a cheesy, bad science fiction movie.

Logan never stops running,

always in motion -- 

alive and well for now,

but whether he sees 31

remains ripe for speculation.

--The Reckoner & The Squawker