‘The Class of 2007’ by Lauren Gorski

Amped and emo, we grew our limbs from wine coolers

dripping wet after teen idols and hip-hugging capris.

During the election, we voted for Pedro and decided

October 3rd would be the new April 25th.

MTV showed us what rich kids do on the weekends;

with British accents and TRL VJ attitudes we decided

to never be the girl who didn’t go to Paris.

The doodles of Shel Silverstein inked our first

tattoo sleeves; with tear drops for the Giving Tree,

the Lorax, Harry Potter, and Dragon Ball Z.

In garages, we played Call of Duty, killing

terrorists from bean bag chairs eating Cheeto puffs

while the high school rotary marketed the benefits

of an unending war on terror far away from the

Playstation headquarters where we actually wanted to be.

Don’t call us out of touch or worse—cheugy

(we don’t know what the fuck that means)—

while we are at the apex of our reproductive period.

We know all too well that soon enough we’ll

be joining the Boomers and Gen X-ers in a parade,

sliding by on our Razor scooters and Heely sneakers.

Our oblivion predestined and in-debted,

at least we can now afford the Nickelodeon

Time Blaster Rise and Slime Alarm Clock Radio

for sale on eBay, tested and functional,

though the hour cannot be changed.

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Lauren Gorski has a Master's in Professional Writing with emphasis in Stage and Screen from the University of Southern California. She writes fiction, poetry, screenplays, and stageplays. Her fiction and poetry have been featured in apt, Badlands, Jersey Devil Press, Underground Voices,and elsewhere. Her plays have been performed for the Hollywood Fringe, PlayGround, PianoFight's ShortLived series, and more. She is a past playwright-in-residence with PlayGround San Francisco. She is also the Comics & Film Editor of Exposition Review, a multi-genre digital literary journal.