Hell No
(we ain't the blank generation)
Hell no
He didn’t invent punk fashion
it was us
the scabby kneed working class kids
in torn pants
ripped t-shirts
and hand me down clothes
and we’d never tear
a pair of levis
our parents would have beat
the shit out of us
levis were xmas presents
under the tree
sunday best with a clean shirt
cabarets and best & fairest awards
then back onto the shelf
in the wardrobe
until the next big event
there was no heroin chic
just kids who didn’t get fed
in the mornings
looking hungry and cold
searching through the bins at school
hair sticking up from grease
and dirt
not fashion or coiffure
no catchy slogans
or pithy remarks
hell we didn’t even know
what pithy meant
we were just given the shirts
that fit
or that we’d ‘grow into’
we shopped at coles and target
and waited for the annual country show
so we could buy iron on transfers
we got by on the sweet sugary rush
of ‘icecream toppings’
marsala and blackberry nip
drunk straight from the bottle
we didn’t know what sonic reducer even meant
but we knew
it sounded great
on a dubbed 75cent cassette
blasting out of a secondhand tape deck
distorted and slipping
and that when we listened to it
the scabby knees
the growling bellies
the second cousin’s shirt…
none of it mattered
anymore
© Kami 2025


I hear ya Kami, but I still don’t know what pithe means, had to look it up haha