Here’s a poem from the archives of David Prater’s brilliant blog, Davey Dreamnation.
DRESS YOUNG
you dress young but then you doubt it
take a look at the band & think
who are these idiots? you remember
dressing young & feel slightly allergic
to all music while all around you idiots!
fawned over new & older yes now
i remember the way you dressed when
you were younger although not
as young as your sister was the night
you accompanied her to bikini
kill at the wollongong youth centre (would
chaperoned be a better word?
you remember kathleen hanna shoving
an old-school telephone down
the front of her undies you remember what
it felt like to feel old as cool blasts
of chill-wave air smacked your face head-
on you were too old to remember
the proton energy pills but nevermind
i mean forget it i saw the future in
a room full of moshing girls & the minor
threat of sk8rs hanging outside
(bored boys who told stories about sk8tn
& shit (did they also dress young –
you betcha (of all people! you grow old you
grow old you shall trade in that dud
album by bob mould for a second-hand copy
of theatre of gnomes who knows
shakedown’s finale like me (i’ve seen spew
coming out of a port kembla sky
it’s just steam some idiot once claimed yeah
there’s nothing polluting about it you
grow old but continue to dress young like some
fifty-year-old drunk wearing okanuis
extra bitter still got it still yearning for that
clayton’s moment (whatever it was –
nevermind redux dress young grow old & die
smiling
Poet, spoken word artist and researcher David Prater is a longtime Going Down Swinging contributor and features in issues #19, #21, #23 and #26-#27. He was also associate editor on #24 and guest spoken word editor for issue #30.
‘Dress Young’ first published in Page Seventeen (2010)