~Get A Life~
Summer 2001

By Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein

Just let me start this out to say I'm sorry that I laughed
When you said the world was like a fortress city
and you stand outside the wall and shout and pound and plead and call
For it to open up and take you out of pity.
And it may seem out of place, but I just can't keep a straight face
When you go on about how no one understands you
Cause you're so alien and strange, and you're so broken and deranged
And that means you don't have to cope with what life hands you
Well, you may want sympathy, but don't look for it from me,
Cause baby, I can hear the bull behind the bluster
So the world's dealt you some slaps, grab your own fucking bootstraps
Cause it's plain laziness that drops you off the muster

Cause baby, I know
There's been a million born, knew hurt the way that you know
There's been a billion torn and bled from scars that you show
And every one was just as human, just as lost inside as you
And every one got all their breaks, and every one got all their clues
And when all the bitching's over, and the breast beating is done,
It doesn't matter how you suffered, if you lost, or if you won
What matters is that you got just the same as everybody ever born
You got a life

You parade in your mystique, looking all tragical and chic
Dancing all the steps that smell a bit like danger
Your black baloon, your extacy, and all the sex you think you need
And when you sober up, you still feel like a stranger
Now I don't want you to think that I don't understand your pain 
Baby, I've lived things I wouldn't wish upon my dearest foe 
All I'm saying here to you is that your pain is no excuse
And the world has every right to expect you to grow!
So when your pity party's done, you find your angst is not so fun
And you get bored with being wretched-er than thou
When you're finished getting off on being oh so all alone,
Drop the curtain on your fashion play and take yourself a bow

Then get a life
That's all that you were promised. Just a life There ain't no quality control
You get a life and you choose it or you lose it 
You embrace it, or you waste it, either way, it's up to you
You get a life and you ride it, or you fight it,
You can love it, you can loathe it, you can treasure every bruise
You get a life cause that's all that you got coming
It may suck beyond the telling, but whatever you may choose
It's all the same in the end, cause I promise you, my friend, you'll get a life

*****

This is one of my favorites out of all my poetry. It will be a song someday, once a tune suggests itself to me, but for now, it's just a neatly rhymed microphone patter-rant. I have no patience whatsoever with people who treasure the state of being 'broken', who find it easier and more rewarding to explain all the things they can't possibly do because... than to just get off their damaged arses and TRY something. Pain and healing have their places, yes, but there comes a time when you have to just stop whinging and... well... you get the idea.