I sit
in a green plastic booth
Sandwiched between a purple table
and a streaky orange wall
I keep my fingers squished into my ears
while I watch a librarian chase a girl my age around
She has a purple skateboard in one hand
a devilish smile on her face
and freedom flies in her hair
Eventually, the librarian catches up to her
and informs her that
she can join her brother’s ban from the library
until September 1st
Which makes me think
she’s a regular
Which makes me think
that the librarian has acted this skit out
many times before
So when the librarian stops by my table
sweaty with his body’s tears of
“Why is this my life”
He smiles at me
and my book
and my ink-stained hands
and says he is glad to see
someone reading a book
in a library,
in a teens section,
That has five rows of computers
and four full of books
He smiles at me like I am not
part of the generation that sits behind him
yelling at computer screens
and the monsters in their heads
He smiles at me as if I am
the 10% of my generation
That his generation has not yet labeled
“Fail”
As if I should skip to the adult section
Where the nonfiction glares down the fiction
with a menacing glare
As if I never feel like riding a skateboard
through rows of books
As if I’ve never wanted to scream in the quiet
or wash away reality with a glowing screen
This generation is many things
but it’s never
whatever society calls it
I am part of this generation
Whatever the future looks like
lies partly in my hands
I am part of this generation
I read books
check Instagram
I write so that I don’t drown
I hang out in public places with my noisy friends
because I am part of the population
My generation and my future
is already better than some of yours
because I know we won’t look at our children
and say that we raised such a lost generation
because we are only lost because
you tell us we are
Let me repeat
we are only lost
because you tell us we are
I don’t want to hear snide remarks
about my cell phone
and how much skin I show
or even the hand of my girlfriend
that I hold
because what’s on the outside
only shows you what you want to see
I am not lost
We have not failed
The only thing strange about my generation
is that we will not tell the generations to come
That they’ve failed
before they’ve been given a chance to become
A found generation
