So here I am, all snowflaked out
Pondering the difference between
Bourbon and whiskey and scotch,
Not a care in the world.
Well, only my avocado soufflé
Not arriving on time.
“Have you voted?” A woman asks me.
“No, and I won’t,” I reply.
“You oughta be ashamed of yourself,” she intones with anger.
“No, not really,” I say, coughing on some exhaust from the traffic right next to the patio seating.
“It’s not like anything will change if I vote.”
I’m back to wondering about booze labeling
And point of origin.
Does scotch have to come from Scotland?
The server returns
“Just another few minutes for your soufflé,” she says.
“Can I get a bourbon?” I ask.
“What kind?” she replies.
“Scotch,” I say.
“Scotch is not bourbon,” she declares.
“Oh just give me some plain old whiskey.”
“I take it brand doesn’t matter,” she says, winking.
“Kentucky,” I say, knowing only vaguely that they make whiskey and moonshine there. Or is that West Virginia? Tennessee?
Flyover states, I think.
Why do all the yahoos in those states think we’re too fancy to run the country?
And who is us?
Not them, I guess.
It’s not like I think I’m better than them.
Just more educated on average.
Why do they get to pick the president and Congress?
As I tap these thoughts onto my laptop the woman who scolded me appears over my shoulder.
“They get to pick the president because assholes like you don’t vote.”
I raise my eyebrows. She must have been reading my screen at the table behind me.
“No,” I say, “They get to pick the president because of the electoral college that favors the inbred.”
My caramel colored thingie arrives.
“Thank you,” I say to my server as the woman sits back down at her table.
I taste the brown stuff on ice and my lips curl back into my gums
as more exhaust burns my eyes.
Why can’t we just clean things up, like EPA style?
What ever did happen to EPA?
And why did we stop dropping articles like The, A, and An?
Avocado soufflé arrives.
Before I pick up the fork, I hold up the whiskey and say, “Can you get me a rum n coke instead?”
She smiles as if to say, “I knew you couldn’t handle it, you weenie.”
Who drinks that shit anyway? Why not brake fluid instead?
My mind gets to wandering about all the toxic chemicals we put into our cars
And then onto pollution in rivers and plastic islands in the oceans.
It’s so overwhelming I can hardly touch the avocado perfection.
Mom can’t protect me from the world like she thought she could.
I still live at my parents’ house, but I’m independent.
I’ve got a computer, a smart phone and a car.
I’ve got my own allowance I can do with as I wish.
I mostly sit in cafés and think about world problems.
If only there were a way I could make a difference.
Maybe I’ll go to a march. There’s always a march.
I finally calm down enough to eat my soufflé.
My rum n coke is here and I take a sip.
All alcohol should taste this good.
I toast to us: The Millennials.
