The Tattooed Crowd At Day Care

Drive up at 8:30 every morning in their eco-friendly cars
Honda CRV, Toyota, Subaru

The Tattooed Crowed At Day Care
Wear cute matching outfits, business suits
Look slightly uncomfortable at
Playing Adult
Say "Good Morning" but don't really mean it

The Tattooed Crowd At Day Care
Carry Dora and Diego back packs
Speak softly to their crying children
In matching outfits
Didn't believe in Labels and now
Can't live with out them
Only the best
Warmest
Most expensive
Earth Friendly
Hormone Free

The Tattooed Crowd At Day Care
Have Blackberries
iPhones
Laptops
with
unlimited
connections
Need at least
Eight hours of sleep to function
Wear long sleeves and button the top button
To cover up
Dirty Secrets

The Tattooed Crowd At Day Care
Has
Settled
Down
Dumbed
Up
Compete
Over
Birthday Parities
Schools of Parenting
Whose child has the most
Crocs
Believing they are now superior to who they once were
Stabbing each other in the back over
Who is the most organic
Rolling their eyes at
Meat
And
Organized Religion

The Tattooed Crowd At Day Care
Pick their children up at
5:15
Walk down the halls
Say "Hello" but don't really mean it
Belonging to this club that is embarrassed
To have me as a member
Raising a generation
Trying to support our
Local Farmer
Not being able to
Drink
or
Fuck
Like the old days
Have dinner ready in 30 minutes
From start to finish
Bath and bed by
Nine

The Tattooed Crowd at Day Care
Are living lies and lives
Sometimes unconscious
Understanding why our parents
Drank and beat us
Trying hard to deny that past
And do better
With no real idea
Of who we are or where we are going

The Tattooed Crowd at Day Care
Overcompensate
With exotic vacations and holiday newsletters
Thinking that I care
Thinking that I don’t know where the equator is that separates
Me from them

The Tattooed Crowed at Day Care
Wear cute matching outfits, business suits
Look slightly uncomfortable at
Playing Adult
Say "Good Morning" but don't really mean it

This poem was previsouly published in Hip Mama Magazine. Mary Panza's lives and writes in Albany, NY. She is the host of the Lark Tavern Poetry Series which has since relocated.

Poetry