2010/01/16 Refinement Poem by Margaret Alice

When my friends criticize Susan Boyle like the
unwarranted attack launched by Sharon Osbourne
because Susan is more unpolished than most -
I get angry, lash out at them in her defense

Susan has a heart of gold, I love Piers and Simon’s
retraction of their initial judgmental reaction, admire
the courage that enabled Susan to face a hostile
crowd to take the world by storm

Filled with fear by the reaction of people I admire like
Sharon and my friend, what feelings make them attack
her for being inferior to them; if they insist on regarding
her as an unworthy oddity

What chance has an oddball like me of acceptance in
a world where refinement is equated with superiority
while the opposite is mostly true? If I go on like this
I will lose all my friends

And I have so few!