I was born in the 90s, were you born then too?
If you were, then my dear friend, I wrote this poem for you…
We’re a generation, composed entirely of bafoons,
And I blame that on TV & the 90s cartoons!
We were indeed the last generation,
Who possessed a “thing” they call imagination,
We had no Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook,
To entertain ourselves, we actually read REAL books,
Or played in the streets, & got chased by dogs,
And were the last kids to ever have mud ruin our socks!
We’d go back inside, when the night time fell,
We’d take a nice shower, or wait till mother yells,
Squeaky clean now, شاي المغرب we’d drink,
Bskaweet Royal had always been our favorite thing!
Dipping it in the tea, and devouring that taste,
Now it’s time for TV & those priceless cartoon debates…
“I think Jerry is cool, he does the best tricks!”
‘No, I think Tom is cooler, he made a trap just out of sticks!’
“I’d love to be a princess, or little red riding hood,
And be brave enough to explore alone, those scary dark woods!”
‘I want to be Jesse, & you could be James,
Or we could be سابق و لاحق, c’mon let’s race!’
Our energy fades out completely, by the time it’s nine,
“Brush your teeth before bed!” “Ok mama, FINE!”
We’d get lost in deep sleep, & charge our brains up for school,
Back in the day when a healthy lifestyle was still considered cool!
We’d dream of a colorful life, just like life in cartoons,
And laugh our heads off at them crazy Looney Tunes…
We’d wake up, suddenly grown up, young adults in Khartoum,
Living this fast life, & realize that we are doomed,
For this life is not exactly what we had assumed!
And slowly, fairytales cease to exist,
No matter how hard we’d try to resist!
Losing our imagination, we slowly realize,
That our generation, was basically based on lies!
How could Little Red Riding hood not be able to guess,
The difference between her OWN grandma, & a wolf in a dress?
In terms of physics, how did Pikachu come out of a pokeball?
And why on Earth did Ash & I have to collect them all?
And when Sleeping Beauty was woken up with a kiss,
Why didn’t she call the police on that prince?
Did nobody warn her about the dangers of harassment?
Was the common sense section of her brain completely absent?
He gave her a kiss, it brought her to life, but it was probably the kiss of his death,
Because after all those years of sleeping, can you just imagine her breath?
The other Beauty was head-over-heels in-love with a beast,
Who tried to kill her father, but he was rich at least!
She talked to furniture, & fell for a talking animal,
To teach me that looks don’t matter? How is that rational?
Now I AM saying she’s a gold digger, to say the least,
Because she sure was not messing with no broke beasts!
Then there’s فاطمة السمحة, who was light-skinned & sweet,
And فاطمة الشينة, dark-skinned, & liked to cheat & deceit!
That taught me all the necessary qualifications,
That make me Sudanese, like racism & discrimination!
Alice in Wonderland taught me to always follow my instinct of شمار,
And if I see a singing rabbit, follow it into a hole in the ground!
Then there’s Ninja Turtles, Michael Angelo & the rest…
They fought crime & ate pizza, they were THE BEST!
Their pizza was promptly delivered, though they lived in a بلاعة,
And I live in Bahri, but I have to wait عشرين ساعة
Their diet only consisted of pizza, they didn’t care,
Yet they were so muscular, that is SO unfair!!
Then came Popeye, an invincible sailer, who smoked spinach…out of a pipe,
And immediately grew muscles huge enough to fight crime…
90s kids, I’m really sorry for what I’m about to say,
But that was TOTALLY not spinach, Popeye smoked Mary J!
Timon & Pumbaa made me believe that bugs tasted good,
Turns out they don’t, believe it or not, I’ll just stick to normal food..
Scar was evil & tricked his nephew into believing that,
He had murdered his own father, & was indeed a terrible cat,
Simba got depressed because he loved his father so,
And never looked back at what he left as he ran away from home,
He got so sad at the death of his dad as if he didn’t JUST sing,
A choreographed musical number, called, “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”
Then there’s Mowgli, raised in the jungle, who somehow knows how to speak,
And believe it or not, he never got his rabies shots, & he was just a freak!
Barney the dinosaur taught me to sing, smile & share my toys,
But turns out he did way more than just dance with those little boys!
Did nobody else, have the same size of foot;
As Cinderella, in the whole damn neighborhood?
She was a masochist, that I could tell,
Because after that ball, she ran back to hell!
She had the power to runaway all along,
From her stepmom, but instead she stayed, & that’s was wrong!
Got abused as she slaved all day long,
Turns out my childhood hero wasn’t so strong…
That is so depressing, allow me to suggest,
If only one of those princesses put down her foot & said,
“To hell with you, evil stepmother!” & packed her bags & left,
And instead of pursuing marriage, she’d pursue success,
And make something of herself, with no one to impress,
But herself & nonetheless, her prince will know he’s blessed!
That prince may come when the time is right, or maybe it’s not meant,
But either way, she’s happy with her personal achievements…
Marriage is not her ultimate goal, & she knows there is more to life,
Than being locked up in a castle, & only leaving it to become a wife!
There’d be no singing birds to help her get dressed,
Or a fairy godmom to clean up her mess!
A princess who is her own godmother, prince & stepmom too,
A princess who’s happiness is not based on only the size of her shoe,
A princess called reality, and she is full of flaws,
She’s not always pretty, yet she doesn’t mind that at all!
That would’ve taught me so many things, that would’ve helped me so,
Because when I, too, tried to sing in the middle of the street, they called me a weirdo!
My point is, we’re a strange generation & now, to me, it makes sense,
We were very happy as kids, but our mentality was nonsense!