There you are –
grabbing hold of that
mutant boomerang of a
video game controller,
eyes glued to
radioactive gaming screen,
thumbs glued to the
controller stick and A button,
blasting away at the forces
of intergalactic evil
with Fox McCloud in StarFox 64,
when all of a sudden,
it’s 3:30, and you are not
gonna miss Pokemon
on the living room
32-inch Panasonic.
You Rapidash your way
toward the living room couch,
diving with TV remote and
black box remote in hands,
in the style of a Pidgeotto,
spinning as you descend
towards the lumpy
comfort for your fanny.
As you do, you turn on
both TV and black box –
with the channel already set!
Nobody knows how
you can be a cool kid after all.
You waited your entire day
to watch Pokemon.
This is the time of day
you don’t have to worry
about trying to fit in.
Your fourth grade class
pretended to like you
for one day, and threw you
in the dirt the next day.
It is the time of day
you aren’t the
loneliest kid in recess –
playing kickball by yourself’s a drag.
You will later end up
rounding up other
Webster rejects
and shoot b-ball every day
in fifth grade.
This is the time of day
you don’t think
about your dad
(Who will slip
into a seemingly
unbreakable depression),
or all about
how hard your mom
is working to be able
to sustain the family
by herself,
only to witness the
statue of the woman
rust away.
But what can you do?
You’re nine years old.
You have some math,
science, and language arts
homework, but it can wait –
it can all wait –
just make sure
you fit in
that healthy dosage
of Vitamin P
into your system,
and have fun
as you turn on,
tune in,
and drop out.
