Revelry

[Erthona]

We were young
Copacetic and pure.
Untrained by hegemony with
flippant causes and reasoning.
Smoking cigarettes in the park
marveling at the sky zoo.
Smoking hookah in our parents garages <"smoking a hookah" a hookah is a device not a substance>
while bonfires roared on alone.
Smoking weed in our old tree houses
laughing at the perceived irony.
Unchained and wistful
still measuring the marks on the doorframe. <"doorframe" probably better to hyphenate>
Shouting over the radio and
memorizing Marxist paradigms.
Sipping on coffee in rebellion
for late night Cinemax.
Cutting class for a parking lot quickie
as friends pondered existence.
Never wanting to stay,
but crying as we left.
Drinking dad's good bottles
because some nights are worth a whipping.
Excitedly returning for reunions
and tearfully driving back for funerals.
We are still young
but there are now younger.
We can still fail
but we now must pick ourselves up
buoyed by ambition rather than guilt.
We simply were
and we will be.
Until the next generation invents sex,
repeating our mistakes
that we ourselves repeated.

___________________________________________________
JS,

There is good and bad here. The listing goes on for a long time, much too long. A little too much moralizing at the end. I do like this line as it characterizes a specific time period well:

"Sipping on coffee in rebellion
for late night Cinemax."

Or as we called it "Skin-a-max"

Probably trim most if not all of this section:

"We are still young
but there are now younger.
We can still fail
but we now must pick ourselves up
buoyed by ambition rather than guilt.
We simply were
and we will be."

Probably end on:

"Until the next generation invents sex"

and cut

"repeating our mistakes
that we ourselves repeated."

As it is already implied.

There are some nice, concise images here, but you could probably cut at least half of the listing that starts with:

"Smoking cigarettes in the park
marveling at the sky zoo."

and ends with:

"Excitedly returning for reunions
and tearfully driving back for funerals."

I'd look forward to seeing a strong edit on this as I think you have the core of a decent poem here.

Dale