Don't Trust Anyone Under Thirty Poem by David Welch

We're told to trust in their passion,
that they're the future we should be,
despite the fact they're not old enough
to know how to shave properly.
They think that being a hero
involves loud marches in the street,
not doing what you have to do
to make sure that your kids can eat.

They believe that they can change things
by posting their feelings ,
ignorant that this approach
keeps failing time after time.
They think that with enough power
they can reshape the human mind,
that any who call them out on this
must be fascistic and malign.

They think they're breaking all the rules
based on who they're taking to bed,
point out that it will not end well
and they're fuming, seeing red.
The fact that it's been tried before
doesn't enter into their heads,
nor that past folk who lived that way
found their nations broken and dead.

We're told they have special knowledge
that only comes from innocence,
to trust that their naivete
somehow beats our experience?
Most of them do not know the change
that comes from being parents,
to follow what they have to say
does not make a whole lot of sense.

Most of them do not have the years
to learn lessons once, much less twice.
They toss aside old traditions,
don't care for older folk's advice.
Try to fill their emptiness,
try to hide their growing strife,
thinking that booze and casual sex
will drown out the great void inside.

Don't trust anyone over thirty,
that's the creed of the Hippy Age,
Don't trust anyone under thirty
is a saying that's far more sage.
Following youth will only bring
dysfunction and difficult days,
besides, they're bound to end up like us,
they're new actors doing the same play.