new jersey

if you prefer a specific type of living hell,
if you want your brains to rot from the inside out,
kid, you've found the right place.
get your goddamn ass to new jersey.

jersey is boardwalks with splinters,
glass in the street and in the sand
that makes the little kids' feet bleed.
needles on the sidewalk, gum in the grass
near-boastful...skankiness.

jersey is crappy beer and crappy girls
it's teasing combs with six prongs missing,
hairspray with those little tinny shake-balls
big hair to compensate for a low life.
fake tans, fake piercings, fake tits.
because who has the time to be genuine anymore?

jersey is menthol cigarettes and chapped lips and bloodshot eyes,
it's teen crack junkies and dead bodies on a city street.
a handgun with three bullets loaded
and two smoking on the damp ground.
it's the way the fall air makes you feel hollow
and the summer air makes you gasp for breath.
how long can a human brain last without pure oxygen? wanna put it to the test?

it's the way that small towns are stifling
and cities are a bloodbath.
high schoolers who think about murder and talk about drugs.
it's teenagers smoking blunts on historical sites.
"dude. do ya think G-Washington lit up here?"
friends make better company than family,
and a couple out-of-tune Fenders make the company even better.

jersey is everything punk and sour
it's kids who would rather spit at you than talk,
kids who burn down buildings
smashing iPhones and anything else that will splinter on the asphalt
kids who try to make a mark.
because after all,
a bat and a blade gave you more unconditional love than your parents ever did.

new jersey is the home of "finders keepers."
the birthplace of all roaches (both insect and human)
mosquitoes, leeches, and con-men.
dirty dealers and unplayable games of man,
and money that is as slippery as the rats in the sewers.
sinners here are so impure they deserve to pay Hell an early visit,

and justice sleeps with her eyes wide open.


new jersey.
in a nationwide poll, it was the most, and only, disliked state.
no one turns down their hi-beams on the turnpike.
no one says please or thank you at the turnstiles
graffitied sixteen-wheelers and smokestacks fill the air with black.
the diesel fumes will make you choke.

 

new jersey is the most densely populated state.

it's all about..
watching your beer bottle-sliced feet bleed into the sand
and laughing as you run down to the shore
feel the salt in your eyes and nose
and taste it sharp on your tongue as it stings your wrecked soles

it's about wearing a cardigan to keep out the fall chill,
and ripped jeans year-round.
getting drunk and smiling despite it all
listening for the faint chiming of carousel music,
in the distance or in your head.

it's about looking your friend in the eye and saying,

"God doesn't smoke menthols."
it's losing your head at local news station headlines,
and everything in between.

jersey is smearing your eyeliner and buying a knife.
it's kicking city muggers between the legs,
then pausing to admire the blistering sunset.
looking up at the light-polluted sky, unable to see the stars,

but knowing you're not alone.

new jersey is a specific type of living hell.
it's dirty, shady, and dangerous.
but, there's a certain pride in this that cannot be shaken.

any common idiot can tell you that this is "the garden state."
but it is from the garden, we multiply.

 

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