Don’t listen to 
what they are 
telling you.
Don’t buy 
what they are
selling.
Teenagers are still
meeting at public pools
to do handstands 
in the deep end
and play volleyball
in the
brittle browned
summer grass.
Kids are still running
the ashpalt
and spreading 
lightning bug guts
on their
sticky sweet
popsicle cheeks.
Lovers are still
picnicking in the parks
and stealing kisses
behind their
tacky tinted
car windows.
We are only doomed
if we stop believing 
in our wonder of
the never-changing.
We can’t go broke
if we never buy 
what they 
are selling.