Nirvana

 
The girls scratched Portishead lyrics into their arms
with paperclips and the boys prayed for date rape.
It was nineteen ninety three;
Mk Ultra had corporate sponsorship
and the psychiatrists became the priesthood.

Every town sprouted alternative schools;
the first cell divisions conceiving of Columbine.
The kids cliqued up according to medications
and the main initiatory rite was attempted suicide.

Success was not to be found in fulfillment
but rather in the denial of the ache
and especially its annihilation into inclusion

and we won

untethered individuals
wired to observe the wrap on others
but to always miss our own

the weight felt so out of place
far too alien to accept responsibility