Gratuitious

I found the violence

To be gratuitous

I realize it's a war movie

But there must be a tasteful way

To depict war

Honestly, for years

You could go see a film

Or turn on the television

And never have to worry

About being affronted

With such unpleasantness

Now, it seems impossible

Everybody seems to be

Creeping towards depravity

That's how it happens, you know

Not in big bursts

But in quiet inches

That's how great things fall

Dignity, civility, society

And people say they can't tell

How it happens

Rubbish

It's easy to tell

It happens when the unnecessary

Becomes celebrated

Everyone thinks because I'm over the age of twenty

That everything offends me

That I'm fragile

And weak-minded

As if I haven't experienced life

If anything, older people are less likely to be shocked

What we dislike

Is being bombarded

With gratuitous things

Sex, profanity, violence

It's not that I'm offended by it

In some cases, it isn't even foreign to my experience

I simply value what's essential

What's necessary

Everything else

Assaults my aesthetic sensibilities

You see, and I hate to use this expression, but--

In my day

We valued simplicity

We didn't need as much

As you all do now

What we used to dream of

Things that would have seemed like privileges

You all now claim to need like air

One day you'll get it

You'll get all you need

And then what will you do?

Find even more shocking things

To drown yourselves in?

I'm glad I won't be around to see that

With any luck

I'll be long gone by then