Slapped Back

Many of us,
Who have attempted to grow older...
And have come to realize,
A daily application...
Of the best moisturizer.
Has its limits to the aging process.
Looking young and feeling it,
Makes no difference at all...
To Mother Nature's priorities.
Already to know, she does...
Face lifts covered,
With a fresh coat of paint...
May disguise what appears,
On the outside.
But those inside,
Know the reality...
Even with the lights out,
No mirror kept polished...
Will never revive that youthful glow.

Many of us also know,
Respect to give...
Had been returned to get.
If someone was slapped?
Back slapped they got.
Becoming friends.
To settle childish arguments.

These days?
Guns are drawn.
If the wrong eyebrow is raised.
And school children are monitored,
Suspected of seducing...
Their elementary teachers.
Who appear to look younger.
Than kids sent to school.
Looking like college students.
Wearing beards and exposing butts.
High on weed.
And smelling of alcohol.
The girls?
Are not the innocent girls,
They once use to be.
No!
Many are seen sharing selfies.
To brag about,
Their sexual activities.
And not with the 'boys' either.

So familiar they are today,
With drugs.
And their weapons of choice.
With a juvenile crime sheet,
Much longer than...
Their tattooed arms.

I remember being punished.
And sent outside to play.
That's how small,
The apartment we lived in had been.
Today?
Punishment to administer,
Have parents considering...
Hiring security guards.
The ones already,
Guarding their gated communities.
Where reality is fictioned.
Deluded, worshipped and raised!

To be slapped back to a reality,
Is an effort endeavored wasted.
Since that normalcy no longer exists.
And craze has become the rage it is.
Yet still...
Those who have grown older,
Believe...
That being slapped back in the face,
Will rejuvenate that youthful glow.
That makes okay...
Their absence for being accountable,
For the mess they have made...
Of their children's lives.
And all of us for decades.
As we watch...
The best of our crop,
Allowed to decade and rot!

Technologically speaking,
Of course!
And...
As sincere as a programmed,
Robot can be!
You know...
Monkey see, monkey do.
Monkey may look more like me.
But more like you is that monkey!