plastic transcendence

by John Grochalski

walking suicides stumble down
new utrecht avenue
with summer school backpacks
smacking off of the back of their knees
these drug slouch kids
doing the visine twist
with their open, slobbering mouths
before nine o’clock in the morning
while every other teen is still in bed
having glorious sex balls of the mind
there is usually a pack of boys
and their one token girlfriend
who’s too loud for the time of day
they extoll the virtues of the weed
as they pass it around standing menacingly
in front of the homes of the foreign or old
these marijuana zombies laughing at the wind
getting stoned before the opening salvo
of remedial math or english
trying to duck the cops who roam these streets
in circles, like rabid dogs chasing after their own tails
sweet aromatic dullards of brooklyn
caught in the shade of their forever high school
who have yet to connect their failures with behavior
too young
too young to understand the ramifications
the ones who will be here all summer and the next
toke after toke after toke
before taking their show of shows into the autumn
up all the way through graduation
in a hail of magic
of plastic transcendence
making a lovely haze
of the fragile and coming future