When you made the system in the 1800s, when factories

were the future, and all children had to learn

was punctuality, thriftiness, and discipline

when what you taught them was hunger clawing

at their bellies, like wolves clawing

their way out,

when what you taught them was gray

in the air, white

in the lungs,

red in the mouth

and on the hands,

when you tell us now we must be individuals,

in a system made to grind us down,

to be noticed, wanted

and even then it’s no guarantee

of a future better than our parents were promised,

when children cry at night out of stress,

fear,

terror of the unknown - and there’s no comfort

to be offered, only platitudes, “try

harder”

when twelve years are wasted waiting, sixteen

preparing us for jobs that don’t exist -

how about you

try harder, to prepare us for the real

real world, not the one you made this system for
two hundred years ago.