I am almost sixteen

But still seen as an infant

Someone who is simplistic

And afraid of commitment

I can't make decisions for myself

I appear to always need a guardian's help

Sure I need to find my life career

But God forbid if I pierce my ear

I better not be lazy

Better think things through

Because according to you

At the age of thirteen

I need to know what college I am going to

But hold on

Politics is something

That I wish to have a voice in?

That I may actually have an opinion

When it comes to the rights of women?

Well that's too far

I need to stop acting out

I mean when it comes to topics like these

They are obviously things

That I know nothing about

But where is your logic in that?

I am expected to have my life

Completely planned out and decided

But when it comes to other countries and their strife

My views are just misguided

My academic sights

Needs to be beyond superior

But any opinion I have on LGBT rights

Is always considered inferior

Maybe if you opened your eyes

You would finally realize

That the fact of how old I am

Does not correlate

With what I am able to understand

I apologize

But I did not realize

That being young

Automatically made me dumb

Generation Nothing.

They tell us we’re frauds for having our own ideas.

Young is equal to brainless.

Individuality is seen as rebellion.

We’re trying to be “different.”

We’re trying to be “right.”

Why is that a problem?

We’re taking over the world you’re leaving behind.

We’re molding it into our own place.

We decide the future.

Your reign is ending.

One day, you’ll all have passed on, and the world will be filled buy us,

And our dreams of grandeur won’t have been illusions.

But if you keep it up,

All of our plans will be destroyed by our own insecurities.

Because you treat us like we’re useless.

You treat us like we’re nothing.

So we start to believe that we really are nothing.

Generation Nothing.

Being youngest was my fate

 I always felt I had to wait

To go to school or hook my own bait

I had to wait to ride a bicycle 

My siblings did, I had a tricycle 

I had to wait for hand-me-downs

Not often did I go to town

A sense of inferiority

Seemed to have a hold on me

Even when the school did start

I didn't realize I was smart

That I was leading in the class

I thought that I was always last.

It took some time to understand

It's not the age that makes the man

Look at the thing, emotional age

The guts it takes to stand on stage

Some throw fits roll on the floor

While they're frickin' forty four

Spiritual age a child is ten

You love to see that child again

Fear of death at ninety two

No fear of death at twenty-two 

The young man took a look

Found answers in a Book 

Since I've aged accused to be

A milf of plastic surgery

I walk fast and laugh a lot

I'm not grey, my hair I got

I'm old on charts but I don't see

That age will ever bother me

It's interesting today how people

around the world view age

as if they themselves do not

grow older by the hour of the day.

Little do they know

that as each minute flows

Time and life are passing

At a breakneck pace!

A child of 5 thinks an 11yr old is a big kid.

An 11yr old thinks a 24yr old is old.

And a 24yr old thinks 50 is old.

There is a saying,

"that with age comes wisdom"

well that is not so true my darling.

For a man can grow to be 100 years

yet if he learns not to share love and

compassion then what good was his

time here?

Society looks at numbers

They judge by the wrinkles

Look beyond the wrinkles

See the lessons on my face.

The scars, the age spots,

If you take nothing else away from this

Then at least take this:

You do not live as a number, therefore

Live your life each moment to the limit

So that you will know that no matter how

Long or Short your stay is here you lived it and it was a full and happy life!

Now get out there and be free and live!

While some grow wiser with age,

Others do not.

While some age gracefully,

Others… not so much.

Though we all age differently,

There’s this fear,

Of growing older.

It’s not necessarily the aging itself,

That’s always the scariest part.

It’s the realization that all these years,

Have passed by you.

It’s that moment when,

Suddenly you look back and think,

“Where has the time gone?”

This isn’t part of the poem, but one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs is “Time”, and writing this reminded me of this part of the song:

“Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”

Invisible. That's me today,

living in this, our world

that worships youth, that lauds

this young boy or this young girl.

Never mind the wisdom I've gained

cuz I've got cottage cheese thighs;

nobody wants to look at me,

to see what's behind my eyes.

Experience isn't respected

cuz it hides behind wrinkles and gray;

now, we're considered 'has-beens',

"Yeah, she was something back in the day".

LOOK AT ME! I AM STILL SOMETHING!

I cry, but nobody lends an ear.

I wonder, will I completely fade

away, will I just disappear?

Signed, Your Elderly

I am a rope

Broken

Worn by time

Threads

Breaking

One by one

Snapping 

Like the cackle of the crow

Slicing through silence

Falling as soon

As it rose

Forgotten

As sky passes by and stars fall by the day

Time progresses in no certain fashion

The ultimate sacrifice if our youth, the life blood we so daringly cling to even after it's time

Time progresses in no certain fashion

After one's youth the time of discovery arrives an we, discover

Time progresses in no certain fashion

The moment someone is able to put pen to paper or mouth to word we are discouraged

Time progresses

We are now rebelling against an unknown cause, singing our souls to the call with no name

Defiance

Forever we feel belonging in this cause and we hail across our fields

"WE ARE THE FUTURE WE ARE ALL-KNOWING AND UNIQUE"

Yet by the time one group hails another will

Then more and more

Forever time goes on

Age is

Talked about as

A series

Of can'ts

First you can't walk

Then you can't talk

You can't go places by yourself

You can't reach the highest shelf

Teens can't decide, they can't settle

They feel just like a herd of cattle

Then the millenials, they can't grow up

They can't afford anything that doesn't come in a cup

In your thirties, you can't get promoted

The world is no longer sugar-coated

Then you can't be young and cool

Your kids they treat you like a fool

You move on to where you can't remember

If it's June or if its September

Finally, you can't live alone

Someone else has to answer your phone-

Now, you could think

Like that,

You could only consider

What you can't do

But what you can do

Is be a carefree kid,

And a quirky hipster teen,

A millenial working for change

And a successful young professional,

A respected boss

And a loving Grandma,

And finally, at the very end,

You can leave happy surrounded

By all the people

Who always knew you

Could

Age is nothing but the passing of the years

The tick tock of time and the dulling of fears

Or perhaps our fears merely grow older too

From fears of the dark to when our mortgage is due

Or perhaps age is just the growth of our minds

Advancing from ignorance to one that’s refined

A surge in our wisdom that makes us mature

As our views of the world are no longer pure

Or maybe age comes from the breaking of hearts

From the tragedy and sadness that tears us apart

From the ache and the pain that we all must endure

From the sickness of time for which there is no cure

Or perhaps age is growing weathered and old

As that fire in our eyes grows increasingly cold

As our hearts and our joints groan and complain

And every action becomes an endeavor of pain

But it is only after death that the true test of age

Can really be known and really be gauged

The test is to see if our legacy lasts

If our lives are remembered or left in the past

To see if we’ve made a change with our lives

That beautiful legacy for which all humans strive

Comparable to Achilles or Arthur the King

Deeds about which future generations will sing