I was looking at the latest call for submissions on the Memoir Mixtapes site, and that led to this…

It’s 1978
everything I listen to
is a guilty pleasure

Through the years
of elementary school
and junior high

I have always been
one step behind
or one step ahead
of everyone else

My tendency to go all-in
when I discover something I like
has not helped matters

My tastes are immediately suspect—
that the radio plays them every day
does not lessen the scorn

The casual disdain
I learn to take as given
though it will be anyway

I know what I like
and I will not be swayed
by popular opinion

I have a Technics stereo
and subscriptions to Stereo Review
and Rolling Stone

So you can do
whatever you want
I’m going to Tower Records

(27 July 2018)