Thoughts of An American Teenager

Maybe I’m crazy
That’s how I feel anymore
But I just can’t seem to help it
I just need to let my feelings pour
Maybe that’s what this is for

Maybe I’m crazy
But I can’t help but think
That the saner you become
The blinder you become
To everything in the world that’s not wrong

I can’t say I know a whole lot
But I think I can say I know a little
The little I’ve allowed myself to be taught
For these are the simple thoughts
Of an average American teenager:

It seems the older I get and the more I see
The more convinced I become
That no one truly knows what they want to be
Everyone searches through answers- with technology
We’ve become such an uncommunicative people
Running to the movies and from the steeple

Each one believes he is right
But we can’t tell each other we’re not
We know there’s gold at the rainbow’s end
And circling around, that’s what we’ve sought
Everyone of us somehow becoming caught

To make money we have to pay
And to get love we have to cheat
Making friends, we stab backs
Knowing people we don’t take the time to meet
And we win, pretending we aren’t already beat

We keep on trading up and up
One lease is followed by a loan
One marriage is followed by an engagement
Consistently inconsistent, we’re prone
To being so open we end up alone

None of us know how to control our lives
So to let it go we drink another bottle
Through this, we forget our other addictions
That are helping us go on as we accept the model
Driving through life on full throttle

We’re living the best, but we’re not overjoyed
While from other countries people die
To just experience this way of life
And yet we continue to live a lie
Because we don’t have the guts to ask why

Our opinions are formulated for us
As we gain our information from the news
While eating lunch, we see the latest war
At the same time, we’re fed old views
And we don’t care that we’ve become used

Oh, our old world is circling on
As we, ourselves, are spinning
Around the same old truths and lies
Around the same old troubled innings
But we’ll continue to make believe we’re winning

We’ll say we’re traveling in a straight line
When, in fact, we know we never were
We’ll pretend there’s value in this stuff
When we know there really is a cure
We’ll pretend there is no such thing as pure

Each of our clocks has to run out
And no one wants to see how much time is left
For then we’d have to ask what this is about
And actually take into account our doubt,
Face what facts have really won,
And see at face value what we’ve become-

Maybe I’m crazy
That’s how I feel anymore
But I just can’t seem to help it
I just need to let my feelings pour
Maybe that’s what this is for

--Written by Sandy Heights