Fading Standards Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Preferences to feast,
Decrease.

Many admit that theirs...
Have long ago ceased.

Some have minimized,
And selected a few treasures to keep.

While those who thought they had many choices...
Try to hide themselves!
With collected assets they own,
Behind them dragged.
In plastic bags!

Or carried with embarrassment,
From under bridges or street corners.
Looking disheveled and in lament.
To blend in fast...
With fading standards.
Bearing college degrees but can't pay rent!

As they mingle and stand with others...
Today!
Victims of a way of life,
From them taken away.

But it was just yesterday,
It seems.
They had sat in comfort and laughing.
Believing their selfishness would last.
But,
Mock no more or jokes to tell they do...
Not!
As they sit in sadness...
Amongst those same folks,
They once called trash!

As they once drove from their suburban nests...
To come to squeeze the life from those,
Barely surviving on urban city blocks!
Who knew those times...
Would for them suddenly stop?

'Did you...?
Mister and Missus Whiffenpoofer?

Okay!
Listen up!

Clairemonts, Duponts and Jones.
Here are your uniforms and brooms.
We are commencing our 'Civic Pride Project'.
Come...
There is much to be done.
Too much to clean...
To sit and look stunned!
And Mister and Missus Whiffenpoofer,
That applies to you too!

All uniforms issued...
Are the color blue!

Do not concern yourselves,
With 'those' eating and feeding.
You will see them later.
We have hired them as our guides,
To introduce you to the fundamentals of 'Street Cred'.
Short for 'reality' check!

They are professional.
We made sure to secure the best.
And of course...
Insure their happiness.

Follow me!
To the 'change' we all can believe in! '