In Transition

I wrote this last year for an English assignment after reading The Great Gatsby.

In the land of the free, nothing is quite as it seems

Behind the red, white, and blue of the flag stands a nation divided along class lines

Which often are blended with the color of your skin

And each generation suffers a disconnect from the one before

As parents in good faith attempt to live out unfulfilled dreams

Through their children in an effort to give them a better life

And if you can make it through 12 years of mandatory school

You are pushed towards higher education and a college degree

The nerve racking realization that by 18 you need to know what you

Will do with your life because only those who have a plan succeed

And from there you must find a husband or a wife and have kids

And if you have to live pay check to pay check you aren’t working hard enough

And health care isn’t a right but an entitlement because if you can’t afford it

You don’t deserve it and this goes for just about everything

And when you are a child you realize that your life is nothing

Nothing more than the consequences of your parent’s actions

And if you are lucky your parents are rich or middle class

Because the poor have no place when trying to live the American dream