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