I am oblivious
When I left home at eighteen
I thought everybody thought as I did
Which was a foolish notion
Since at my Catholic school I knew
Lots of people who thought that the Monkees were good
Thought that Richard Nixon was good
Thought that the Brady Bunch was good
Thought that the Viet Nam war was good
Thought that God was good
Who wanted me to suffer eternal torment
For the momentary
And let it be said universal
Among those of a certain age and gender
Pleasure of masturbating
And in a few short months
I became sexually active
And masturbated only resentfully
And under duress
And my too-early sexual activity
Turned out great in the long run
And since both my beloved and I thought that to be the case
I thought that everybody was similarly optimistic
Thus I couldn’t imagine that Mitch McConnell
Would prevent consideration
Of Obama’s Supreme Court nominee
That a cruel and buffoonish reality star
Would take the Republican presidential nomination
That the senate would refuse testimony
In the impeachment trial
That the official in charge of elections
Would seize the governorship of Georgia
That millions would think it an acceptable practice
Not to wear a mask during a pandemic
And thus while resisting indulgence in name-calling
The thought occurs
That I might be reprehensibly naive
Or perhaps that the current moment is more horrible
Than a decent person could entertain
Despite ample warning from the twentieth century
And the nineteenth
And the eighteenth
And the seventeenth
And the sixteenth
And the fifteenth
And the fourteenth
To the last syllable of recorded time