Youth Always Wins Poem by Lonnie Hicks

Generational change
wins always
because the old and middle-aged
develop a clouded lens
and can' t see Now
because focused on Yesterday.

Is good advice for Youth Now
consist of lessons learned yesterday,
when yesterday no longer exists?

Can we tell the Young that yesterday
is relevant
when all yesterday is dead and gone?

How can we council that the old views
and yesterday make sense
when conditions have so changed
have been rent,
mangled beyond
recognition?

Young people
as they must
absorb much from us,
but their capacities
and needs are so much greater
than our meager philosophies present.

For the first time in history
young people are smarter
than their elders who
barely know how a computer works.

First time in history the young
are wiser than the septuagenarians.

Generations are additive
and while all youth stands upon
our shoulders
it also means they can see further
than we
planted on the ground below.

We see ground level and the past-
they see above the clouds to that future-ness;
and we complain
because we know in our Youth
we did
exactly
the same thing
against our parents
who always thought
they too,
knew best.