The Erstwhile American Freakiness Party Poem by Raj Dronamraju

The clouds massing high above our best and brightest
Our weak and most idiotic
It shakes, buzzes, and booms but never produces anything
It's never an object of a direct discussion; only comes up in sideways diatribes, little pissy comments, memorized monologues

They are all together but not in any sort of deliberate way
Random togetherness is the only way I know how to explain it
Biology could perhaps only give half of the information you are seeking

There's an invisible language some are born to decode
Others will forever fish feebly for a connection that does not come
And hope for another's cluelessness or desperation to find satisfaction

In addition, they struggle with the desire to feel miserable
Pleasure derived from not getting what you want and then moaning and complaining about it
The conditioning not to attempt to approve all this

We take on the lives of people who are not us
We take on these lives through public performance
Because we want to fit in and we want material wealth

But you deny yourself you and in doing so deny yourself a good time
So you become seedy
That's a life that was bright now is moldy around the edges

And when your life is in ruins, someone invites you to a party
A party wherein the guests are people just as freaky as you
Letting their guard down, they share their secret passions

Letting their hair down, they no longer care what others think
You don't foresee how this will cost you
No longer care how this will cost you

The damned no longer know discomfort
Because they have removed themselves from America
One evening's pleasure cancels out a lifetime of fitting in