Do Not Give Me Teenagers

 He steps into the local

A little inebriated, therefore a little animated 

He sees his 'friends' 

Friends by the virtue that they commune together 

to have fun destroying their livers with cheap liquor 

'It's peaceful here,' he says 

His wife sells groceries across the road 

And there are three teenagers in the house 

running wilder than the wildebeests in the Mara 

He gulps his vodka, wipes his mouth and scans the area 

and declares that he has three teenagers 

He says he cannot buy a single bread 

because they think it is the biggest joke 

after democracy in the African continent 

He whines about his job, 

his wife, the government, the cosmos, aliens 

then leaves for his house - 

a place he can't stand a second of sobriety 

Because of the marauding teens 

By God, it made me think 

please do not give me teenagers 

I want to drink for other reasons 

than teenagers - insatiable teenagers 

who have since ceased finding anything humorous 

in the old bones that made them who they are