Danger In Paradise Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

The air?
So fresh.
Unpolluted and sweetened.
With each breath taken.

The sky?
Bluer than any blue,
For miles on the horizon to see.
And the water crystal clear.
Reflecting images as if a mirror.
When anyone appears near the surface.
To cleanse themselves,
Done to do...
With expressed gratefulness.

Diverse are the people.
Young and old.
Sharing together.
Representing every race.
Happy and enjoying peaceful lives.
As many mixed and blended,
Never before to have known restrictions...
Of love for each other shown.

Then those from other shores arrived.
To adventure and explore.
Bringing with them values.
Values to settle in an isolation strange.
Claiming themselves to be the chosen ones.
Sent by God to re-arrange and change.
A way of life to live and worship.

Danger in paradise.
Began for those living peaceful lives.

Conflict, division,
And deceitful teachings they were taught.
Unknowing...
Some were sought,
To betray their relatives, neighbors.
And the best of close friends.
With golden trinkets and favors given.
And money paid for their treasonous thoughts.

The implementation,
Of this wickedness continued.
For centuries and decades to pass.
Until too late,
Erased from minds of generations gone.
Were the practicing of rituals.
No longer to go on.

Young and old,
As centuries and decades passed.
Created to develop a hatred,
Between themselves.
As the ones from other places,
And distant shores.
Continued to deceive more and more.
Done with a doing to have everyone believe,
Their quality of life...
Was being threatened by unknown enemies.
Enemies for centuries and decades,
They had been taught themselves to be.