The Dull Generation

Here, the dull generation
is my generation.

At home,
I would like to think that indeed we were,
that indeed we are the dynamic generation.
We keep trying to change the world,
its art,
its politics.
We have failed as much as succeeded,
have been every bit as ordinary
          as extraordinary.
Yet, many who come along to replace us
          tell me we are special
          for decades of having been not dull
           (even if we seem quaint today).

The Dull Generation

Bob Komives

Here, the dull generation
is my generation:
too young to remember life before
          iron curtains sealed them from us.
too old to discover a new life,
          create a new life
          since the curtains have opened.

They were too young to rebel,
to inflate fully
          with excitement and optimism.
They watched as their parents,
          their older brothers,
          their older sisters
stirred up a revolution,
succeeded,
then failed,
died,
escaped,
got crushed,

They may resent the older one
who is old enough to have fought twice,
suffered defeat twice,
yet retain something heroic to remember.

They may resent the younger one
who sees them as dull,
as too far from the groove
          of cultural explosion.

They speak bitterly of retirement,
having now retired
          into a discomforting new world
          that gives back far less
          than the old world promised.

If they are not dull,
they feel dull.
They are the handsome one
and the pretty one
who is sure nobody
          will want to dance with them.
Their mirrors do not reflect attraction.
Certain of their dullness,
they tell me they resent it,
accept it,
cannot see beyond it
except to see dull certainty
and to assure me
          that my ordinary life
          has been every way better
          and everything but dull.

.

poem by Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2004 :: The Dull Generation :: 0410