To the worn out 16-year-old with bloodshot eyes working at McDonalds:
How old were you
when you had to decide between
childhood and survival?
When you put learning and play to the wayside
to take on the roles of caretakers and breadwinners
pursuit of a paycheck
to put food on the table
rather than pursuit of knowledge
to feed your mind
and pursuit of play
to feed your soul?
Did you make it
or was it made for you
by the circumstance of your birth
and every life-long struggle after that?
What must change for you
so instead of working for minimum wage
you could return to the innocence of youth
rather than stay in the anchored monotony
needed to stay alive?
4 thoughts on "To the worn out 16-year-old with bloodshot eyes working at McDonalds:"
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I get it!! Youth leaves us way too soon.
“so instead of working for minimum wage you could return to the innocence of youth ”
I love it….I was 15 🩷
Love the questions, chronicles an unhearalded path and the cost of the one that takes it.
I was 11: “When you put learning and play to the wayside
to take on the roles of caretakers”
And decades later when I acted on: “What must change for you”
Thank you for this poem.
I love this! So many of my 8th graders start work if they can get a ride. It breaks my heart for exactly what your poem says, “decide between childhood and survival.”
A moving and empathetic poem. Thank you.