adolescence

we were children of the night
  searching for the right
 path down the twilight cooled
      concrete skin
of the city of sin
   lost amidst, within
flocks of fortunetellers,
  fortune hounds,
   fortunate we didn't drown
down the sucking asphalt
   gullies of las vegas boulevard
fremont, tropicana
 
   damn...

we grabbed the future
in careless hands
   reckless, 
    standing side-by-side
on jutting corners watching
  life spin by in a blur of
neon splashes on smooth glass
  windshields and chrome rims,
russian roulette wheel dreams
   it seemed the night
     lasted forever
encapsulated in smooth seamed
  plastic baggies 
     and fearless youth.
    
and we stared down hip hop tags
  in the graffiti ghetto, 
    crashed, 
        laughed
 through scattered rainbow 
      streams of
the caesar's palace fountain
  king and queens on our own 
     mountain
        of a molehill,
never stilled
  quasars of perpetual motion
hyperactive head kids
  that didn't quite fit in
    didn't matter though,
  we had our friends...

conformity is a grey flannel lie
   i don't wanna die
      don't wanna die

- j sheridan fenn ca. 1994