A Study In The American Personality: Someone Else's Casualty Poem by Dennis Ryan

February 4,2007

"The American cult of friendliness conceals but does not eradicate
a murderous competition for goods and position; indeed, this competition
has grown more savage in an age of diminishing expectations."
- Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism

I have waited a long time to speak—so I won't have much to say to you.
I don't blame you—you're just another casualty anyway, like the rest of us.
But how could you?You know you're being lied to too, so why pretend?
Simply put, are you a glad recipient of lies, alibis, bribes, and thus reassured?
I kept up the illusion we were friends, and you can't recognize yourself for what?
For whom—your children?Just keep on smilin', just be nice: you're a success
at any price.Just sell yourself.Re-self yourself.Reshelf—your self-respect
isn't worth a dime.Not to mention trust.Psychosocialize yourself to agree,
develop a pleasing personality: be glad to give in, be eager to please—
it's just a difference of degrees.You've chosen to play someone else's game,
fit into someone else's dream, someone else's casualty.Stop.Go. Then Go again.
Stop. Look both ways.Dream.End.Then go, go, go again. Stop. Stop!Stop!
they said.No real dreams, no real me, just another casualty—you say it so
casually.End—I miss you.Game—I miss you.Go back.I don't know you.