1.
Creepy crawlers
known for infestation
generally like to keep
to the darkness they spawn in
but will occasionally leave
if driven by desperate hunger
or a disturbed hiding place
or a nest
too populous
for another.
That’s when you know
you’ve really got a problem.
2.
A world that seems to move faster by the day
versus a youth that grows at the same slow rate
creates shadows for new conflicts to swarm in.
Little minds like new homes constructed
with handheld windows to infinities of things;
knowledge and philosophies not meant for
or aimed at
preteens.
Doesn’t take much for wrongness to get inside–
a Tate or a Rogan to stake out their claim,
heralding a spiral that breathes life
in the privacy of headphones.
3.
Every new idea is another egg hatched.
Dark humors look for fresh lines to cross.
Insatiable algorithms beg
for more time to consume.
Then suddenly, that which fills a young man’s mind
becomes the words that he puts out into the world.
You’ll hear it in the home
and you’ll hear it in the schools
and read it on Reddit
and if nothing pulls him back
you’ll feel it in his votes.
4.
Is it his fault? No
though it will one day be his responsibility.
But when exactly does that day arrive
and who is to call the exterminator before then?
And if–hopefully when–he reaches that point
where his reality needs to change,
will you allow him the safe space to grow new in?
Can you keep a strong stomach
when straggling toxicities scurry about?
Can you show him safety
in a different way of being?
Because it’s unfortunately very easy
to send men like this into retreat.
Because one who’s lived in infestation
has learned
how to be comfortable with the bugs.
