Let's Go, Let Go, Let's Pretend

Let's go to the drugstore and see if they have anything new.  They have only two bins, so it won't take long to browse.  What the band is wearing on the cover will have the biggest impact on what we choose.  The wilder, the better.

Let's go in the woods, smoke Luckies from the pack you stole from your Pop's bedside drawer.  The one where he keeps a loaded .44, an address book, and condoms  We'll talk about what we suppose is cool, find dead tree limbs and swing them like barky baseball bats and shout Iron Maiden lyrics at each other.  We can sit next to the creek and talk of leaving soon, going out in the real world and away from the valley.  The world is spinning away from us fast, and haven't even had a shot to see The Clash.

Let's go to a dingy little basement and hear the noise coming from busted, ratty amps.  We'll buy beer and jump and hop and sway and fall, we're pimple faced menace without teeth.  Everyone is suffering from the same disease.  We sweat and when we move quickly it flies into the air like a misty rain without a breeze to carry it away.  We'll go to the bar and catch our breath.  Sweat will collect between our shoulder blades and run down the spine in that firm channel of young man muscle.

Let's pretend we're real grown ups and go buy some wine for tonight.  We'll take it back to your place and light candles and listen to your old folk records while we talk.  Can you ask your roommate to go to a movie with her boyfriend?  It'd be nice to have some time alone together, just like real grown ups.  I'll get pins and needles in my leg from laying awkwardly on your bedroom floor while we make out. I may not be as scared as you, but I'm a lot less confident.

Let's pretend none of it matters.  It's all commercial and so stupid and so very gauche.  What we need is something hard and honest and truthful.  Let's pretend it doesn't matter when our wish is granted.  Let's pretend we aren't shocked by our own narcissism and sadness.  Let's pretend we are actually whole and normal, it's everyone else who is full of abnormal holes.

Let's pretend we know better.  It just isn't the same today as it once was.  Yesterday was art and low-brow wonderful.  Today is low tide.  Look at the rubbish left behind.  I know we shouldn't have thrown trash in the water in the first place.  Let's just pretend we didn't do it.