Generational Gaps

What is it about the teenage mind
that veers toward impatience,
irritability with the adult mind
paying attention to the teen's dark
moods of discomfiture but not
fully appreciating the vast gulf
of generational experience?

The intractable intolerance, and
bedevilling insolence of the adult
refused an explanation by the teen,
certain it would be time wasted
does not auger well for the emotional
relationship the adult assumed the
future would surely present.

The patience of the adult rewarded
by the biting scorn of the teens,
secure in the knowledge that the
world exists only in their minds,
bypassing adult awareness. For all
that matters, the language, music,
apparel and concerns are theirs alone.

Resentment of the school workload,
the cool new electronics everyone
has but they, the societal parameters
to be acknowledged, all grate on the
hubris of teen conceit of self as unique
and uniquely under-appreciated.

And then the surprise lapse when the
guarded mind is suddenly relaxed and
the child peers again through the bars
of its hormonal imprisonment - and a
smile and a fierce hug are awarded;
suddenly all else forgotten in the
comfortingly stable envelope of love.