Revealing Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Revealing.
Is the peeling away,
The image of pretentiousness.
Kept for years and decades,
Marketed.
Sold to sell a lot of it stocked.
America!
Is on a soapbox.
Being chopped away,
By those shopping nonstop.
In grief and disbelieving,
What they have bought to buy.
Is not as genuine,
As once they were told...
Had been as pure as gold.
But many,
Have begun to discover...
Underneath,
America's manicured cover...
Is a glossing over,
Of a cracking foundation.
Thought cemented in truth.
But what is being revealed,
Are those who feel entitled...
Not only the image,
Of America's...
Successful delusion.
But also,
The quality of life...
They themselves,
Could no longer tolerate...
A sharing of a deception,
Becoming more diversified...
Than they would rather,
Have it be!

'Explain this to me.
If you controlled the media.
And created to sell,
What is to believe.
And made a nonstop profit,
From doing it.
To hire and fire,
Whomever you please.
With a doing to convince,
Everyone you are superior...
Than they are to be.
And in the majority,
Of those you label minorities.
What difference does it make,
Who it is you choose...
To place in your windows,
For all to see? ! '

I can not explain that.
However...
I do know this,
If the faces of my relatives...
Began to appear,
On the money I spent.
And immediately,
I can identify...
Their ethnicity.
On every pennie, nickel...
And dime of it.
To my last dollar.
And...suddenly,
Without explanation...
Or warning,
That was changed?
Then...
And only then,
Would I openly address...
My concerns to express them!
Before I thought there was,
For me a need...
To bite the hand that fed me!

'I hear what you say.
But...
What about,
The faces...
You may have,
Given permission...
To sit and be seen,
At your windows? '

Well...
If they are looking in,
And not out from them.
I may or may not...
Cause havoc,
Throughout...
The entire neighborhood.
Caring less,
Whose expense it is...
Created by my own ignorance.