Kids These Days

there’s a menacing quality

to the teenage laughter of this neighborhood 

i have trust issues and

i know they won’t take me seriously

these kids bouncing balls and yelling at night

or driving windows down and tunes up loud

i am glad their enjoying themselves but

not at the expense of the solace of others

i’m not going to yell at them to get off my lawn

or turn down the goddamned music

how could they hear me in the clouds 

but on the ground

i have children of my own now who need to sleep

and i have jangled nerves that need untangling

and a need for a simplified life where things go right 

if only once in a while