here's an answer for you

here’s an answer for you
by emma blowgun
i sit through my college classes,
i have talked and shared myself with my
classmates; these peers of mine,
we are a small part of the community college
percent of our generation, and oh yes,
we are going to live in the same neighborhoods
someday, in the lower-middle class parts of town
with sixty-year old houses and the lawns yellowed.
we are the construction workers, the nurses and the
kitchen employees, we are taught how to become
these things but we are not taught how to overcome
the university kids who live only twenty minutes away, and
oh yes, they will be our bosses and leaders and their houses will
be strong and new and their lawns will be professionally cared for,
and the university kids will marry young and have children that will
have nicer things than the children of me and my peers.
we are the underside of eastern iowa life.
we go unnoticed.
we are melting like insects stuck in lye. we are preparing for our
future.
that’s what i tell people when they ask why kirkwood students
are notorious drinkers.