nerd culture

4 boys get on a bus.

they look like a bunch of nerds,

all talking quietly amongst themselves,

anxious not to disrupt the girl with the headphones,

the gentle rocking of the floor.

tonight they’ll go to boy number 1’s house and get as stoned as they can with the little they’ve got.

their brains have been going non stop for weeks,

essay, after lecture, after study group,

day, after day, after day.

they’ve got a den set up in his garden,

all kitted out with beanbags and blankets

and bad drawings all over the walls.

that’s where they go when they need a break;

when they need to not be people with potential anymore.

boy number 2 needs it the most.

he just got a C in his assignment

and he’s already anticipating the subtle disappointment in his mothers eyes.

her only child,

letting her down.

doesn’t he know? he’s smart enough to be better than this.

smart enough to be better than her.

in time, he will be;

his well paying job and loving family will make her proud one day,

just not yet.

boy number 3 doesn’t have to worry about things like that.

he’s at the top of his class,

just like he always is.

he’s always working, but it’s never really hard,

his teacher loves him; thinks he’s special.

and when he sees her after class she gives him special treatment.

he stays at her flat at the weekends,

telling his parents he’s with one of the boys,

even though they never ask.

why would they? he’s doing well.

boy number 4 is sat next to him as they arrive at their stop.

he sighs through his nose;

he never wants to get off this bus,

not when their arms are pressed up together like this,

making all the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

he’ll never stop loving him.

not really.

even when he’s a professor,

working back at the same university they’re all at now.

when he’s successful and respected and fulfilled that potential,

there’ll still be that ache.

boy number 5 isnt just a nerd,

he’s a genius;

one of those people who could do anything.

but he doesn’t want anything,

so he ends up doing nothing instead.

40 years from now he’ll still be working in the co-op,

and the others won’t hear from him anymore.

if he’d have stayed in education he could have cured a disease,

or been to the moon.

what a waste.