Wide And Unapologetically Grounded Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

All their lives,
They had spent in the pursuit of things.
Things they were told would bring to them happiness...
And status!

Attend they did prestigious schools.
To enhance a pretentiousness invested.
Just to prove...
They could have the best,
Of what a selfishness in greed could buy!

Some took their pride to stride about proudly,
With titles.
Invited to hide and disfigure any insecurities.
And they had them to mask!
These tasks were assisted in their smotherings.

This increased their worthiness.
With affectations intact...
And attached to snobbiness.
Until one day...
Their plastic existences lost support!
Beginning to drift away.
An abortion of fantasies,
Had caught them off guard.
And nothing they obtained,
Brought with it such stinging pain.

A shallowness hidden,
They could no longer maintain.
It brought their sorrows to deepen.
And showed them to be shallow,
Even in their shame...
They claimed and bartered dignities.
As if this would keep them from looking foolish!
A look they had no idea,
Had long not been sought to reflect honesty.
Or a depth of thought imagined,
That could or would exist in these minds.

Thank You Father...
For opening my eyes,
Wide and unapologetically grounded.