MotherReader

For Poetry Friday I’m featuring new(ish) hip(ish) songs that have their own poetry (of sorts). Today’s song as poetry is “1985,” by the band Bowling for Soup. It will probably strike a chord, so to speak, with other thirty-something moms, but the song was big last year with all the kids of those thirty-something moms. Ironic, huh?

Debbie just hit the wall
She never had it all
One Prozac a day
Husband’s a CPA
Her dreams went out the door
When she turned twenty-four
Only been with one man
What happened to her plan?

She was gonna be an actress
She was gonna be a star
She was gonna shake her ass
On the hood of Whitesnake’s car
Her yellow SUV
Is now the enemy
Looks at her average life
And nothing has been all right since

Bruce Springsteen, Madonna
Way before Nirvana
There was U2 and Blondie
And music still on MTV
Her two kids in high school
They tell her that she’s uncool
’Cause she’s still preoccupied
With 19... 19... 1985.

Check out the rockin’ tune at iTunes, and don’t blame me if you start singing it everywhere. Like, say, in the car while you’re driving your daughter and her friends to the ice-skating rink and your daughter says you’re embarrassing her even though her friends clearly think that you are the coolest mom around for knowing all of the words to the song and also seem to appreciate the little dance move you can do while driving, because that’s talent.

Not that I know anything about that kind of situation.