Toddlers at the Grown-Ups Table

We know you think of immaturity
as though ‘entitled’ is a middle name
each member of our generation is born with,
as though our X and Y chromosomes
have crossed to spell ‘we deserve…”
tattooed on our selfish skins.
We are well aware you think us wild
and you’re right, we are
we are dangerous beasts you yourselves
have loosed on this desperate, bleeding planet
from the cages of your judgement
and the prejudice of your procreation.
You think we are destructive;
to the world, to each other, to ourselves.
We grew up learning that ‘selfish’ and
‘introverted’ were bad words
but in this world YOU have made,
the first is nothing but a survival tactic
and the second is a slim, shameful escape.
We learned younger than any before us
the power that technology brings
to our buzzing fingertips
starved of our childhoods
and we learned of the awe and fear
with which you gazed upon our LED mirrors
reflected on our pale, fluorescent faces.
(Imagine.)
Without our curled, tapping fingers
that you spit scorn down on cellphones
and wipe your derision across our keyboards
we have used to grasp power by the throat.
You call us lazy - unmotivated,
but we are working every waking moment
to crush the last vestiges of flickering
light and life from your power triangle.
To grind your injustice to the ground.
We are an age -
a generation of destruction
caught between a world which is
all bright and dazzling
and your future you push is
static and noiseless.
Suffocating our brilliance with
the tired reality of it all.
We are a generation of fury.
We are a generation of change.
We are a generation of destruction.
Damn it, we are coming -
and we will destroy you.