'Affected'! Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

They perceive themselves to be intelligent.
So they do their best to impress.
Expressing a kind of...
Hollowness.
And hints they have become,
'Affected'!

Without one sign,
That shows them to be basic.
Nothing to prove them to be grounded at all.
Not to anything of structured stability.
'Affected'!
Blinded by the blaze of pretension.

'Affected'!
That's what we use to call folks like that!
A tossed salad of deluded exclusiveness.
Harmless as well as annoying.
And difficult to keep respected.