Independent Wishes Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I stay interested in their lives.
The youth.
Exploring their individuality.
I stay with a kept interest.
From their perspective and point of view,
How they and not me...
Perceive the living of their lives.
Without insisting to listen
About those days I lived they never knew.
When I was crushed to discover,
Santa Claus had been...
My parents undercover.
Days I lived in torment after that.
All through junior high school,
I resented truth.
I despised what truth meant with contempt.

Times have changed and I remain updated.
I want to keep aware of how the youth today,
With their independent wishes...
Think themselves prepared for a future I saw,
Decades ago to slowly let those 'realities' go.
With a being available for any questions,
The young people might ask.
About 'that' future I had they did not witness.
To cross my fingers in the hope,
Theirs should stay around to linger.

'O.G.? '

Oh who?

'Old guy. Pops. Geeeesssh.
You say you remember what life was like,
Before cell phones and flat screen TV's?
When people denied,
To express their true indentities?
And guys actually wore pants,
Around their waists and above their butts?
And women of all ages had dignity.
Without every other word cussed? '

Yep.
And believe it or not,
People didn't ask to be respected.
It was expected.

'And then...
That future you saw to witness.
What happened to it? '

Well...
Sadly enough,
It came to go so quickly.
People my age,
Either drugged or slept through it.

'LOL....
O.G. got jokes.'

Don't laugh.
I see nothing coming funny,
For you to remember.
Or for me kept with hopes to see.
To keep collectively reminisced,
Quickly to talk about it.
And check this out,
At least when I was a kid,
I was believed...
When I pretended to be innocent.
And you...
Can not do that!
Can you?
I think not.