Teenage Culture

Is the definition of

“We’re not okay”

Popping pimples and changing looks

BeReal and TikTok as we try

To form some type of connection

With the kid next door

Hours on makeup and minutes on sex

We get wrapped up

In our own smoke

Rising to the sun from our weed filled vapes

People telling us that they expect better

From this teenage culture

We were raised by the internet

Where Wattpad was our annoying older brother

Reddit was our neighbor

And Tiktok was the cousin we never had

Looking at pictures

Of the skinniest girls

And the strongest men

Dividing ourselves into 

Perfect vs everything else

Our definition of love

Was the eyes of boys undressing girls

In our highschool hallways

Skipping became the new hobby

And covering our bodies

Was the quickest way to isolation

Showing off to the world was how you got a raise

In this stupid paygrade world

Of “we aren’t going to college”

Turned into

“You’re not getting into college”

We are blamed for the teenage culture

Yet we were raised

By the lost cultures of people before

Gen-Z was born

Into a world where the fire had gone out

And we were told to pick up the pieces

Of a life that we never knew

Told we had the privilege

To have the world at our fingertips

But what privilege did we have

When we pay for love and affection

With blood, sweat, and tears

Of the children before us

We carry our crosses

And no one is around to help

Because to hell with Jesus and his father

Where are our fathers when we needed them

Why look to the metaphorical 

When it takes an X and Y

To show why we were created

Our teenage culture is built

On fear and intelligence

A world so broken that the pieces

Of the messed up puzzle are already six feet under

Taunting us and teasing us

As we follow their path

Headed to the grave that we dug

Years before we were born

When the fate of the world

Didn't rest in our unknowing hands

Disappointment being the only caretaker we know

As and Bs being the only letters that matter

In this stupid teenage culture

Where our lives didn’t ever

Seem to matter

Simply more bodies

For the economy 

To simply destroy in factories 

Where we make more of ourselves 

Useless bodies of technologies

Performing for anyone 

But ourselves

This teenage culture

Is built on hopeless dreams

And empty pockets

Our dreams seeming like rockets

Shooting for the moon

And never landing among the stars

Teenage culture began the minute

An iPad or phone

Was thrust into our hands

Information at our fingertips 

That never should have 

Been there

The internet out babysitter

A teenage culture 

Full of walking corpses 

Waiting to join our fellow soldiers 

On the front lines

Of a war we never started