On Society

McKinney X-Tex

Green door opens
on a shiny wooden floor,
mid America neighborhood
small town porch
expecting antiques
and apple pie
greeted by shoes
all in a line.
It sure looks Japanese,
Zen in Texas.

Hippy Birks and mud-caked boots
shiny leather and jogging shoes,
Docs and wing-tips,
eyes and laces,
looks like soldiers with
expectant faces
proud to march
for generation Xes
Deep in the heart of Texas

Craft-paper curtains
hangin' on a line,
no couch, no Lazy Boy,
nowhere to recline,
a Buddhist feel,
hard to define
Post-Modern with
a Latino beat
American flag hangin'
'cross the street.

Past and future
home-made furniture
little garden
with herbs and flowers.
Convent, commune,
suburb, studio,
badminton, computer
no TV or radio.
Philosophy, art
flowin' and mixin'
this is the dwelling
generation X lives in
par excellence.

Deconstructing tradition
for their inspiration
making do with little
with no expectation.
Friendship, labor,
it all seems so natural,
life-style and art
revealing the spiritual.
Form and function
respecting all cultures,
creating a salad
of delicious structures
breaking the mold
between new and old
no racial, political
or religious taboos
to imprison the mind,
to paralyze the mood
of creativity.

Gen X is extreme
breaking limitations
defying all generalizations
and archaic definitions.
Taking the world
and using its diversity
to make something new
in the face of adversity
of all the plastics
and all the pollution
of cookie cutter castles
that defy evolution.
Making from leftovers
something more human
where all is respected
and beauty the nexus
of the new world
of generation Xes.

Post-modern lives
in generation X,
this little group
in McKinney Tex
proves the spirit of new
can thrive in any context
nature and craftsmanship
are the height of respect
while the beauty of past
and future connect
in details of design
and new combinations
which illicit new observations
and new revelations
and new appreciations
which stretch the imagination
to the heart of creation.

Generation X
has no stereotype
It's beyond definition
beyond advertising hype.
It's inter-generational
post-historical
inter-racial
inter-structural
multi-cultural
stretching the possible:
It's the skater dude
being philosophical,
the Latina artist
at the computer,
the classical musician
doing the cha-cha-cha,
the architect building
a tree house for the child,
the German girl meeting the need
of beauty and innovation….
All together creating
a new nation
without dogma
or indoctrination,
without limitation
or contrition.
Just taking the next step
of evolution,
in experimentation,
in the streets of old McKinney,
in Texas.

© 2001 Richard Sidy