dress young

you dress young but then you doubt it 
take a look at the band & think
who are these idiots? you remember 
dressing young & feel slightly allergic
to music while all around you (idiots!
fawning over you & new order yes now
i remember the way you dressed when
	you were younger (although not
as young as your sister was the night 
	you accompanied her to bikini
kill at the wollongong youth centre (would
	'chaperoned' be a better word? 
you remember kathleen hanna shoving
	an old-school telephone down 
the front of her undies you remember what
it felt like to feel old as cool blasts
of chill-wave air smacked your face head-
on ... you were too old to remember
the proton energy pills but nevermind
	i mean forget it i saw the future in
a room full of moshing girls & the minor 
	threat of sk8rs hanging outside
(bored boys who told stories about sk8tn
	& shit (did they also dress young -
you betcha (of all people! you grow old, you 
grow old you shall trade in that dud 
album by bob mould for a second-hand copy 
of theatre of gnomes who knows 
shakedown’s finale like me (i’ve seen spew 
coming out of a port kembla sky 
it’s just steam some idiot once claimed (yeah
there’s nothing polluting about it ... you 
grow old but continue to dress young like some
fifty-year-old drunk wearing okanuis
extra bitter still got it still yearning for that 
	clayton’s moment (whatever it was -
nevermind redux dress young grow old & die 

smiling