Accountability Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Changes needed to be made.
And long overdue.
Has to begin with a view,
From the inside out.
Not from the outside in.

If one's backyard,
Has piles of garbage, rubbish...
And decades of accumulated trash.
Who should be held responsible,
To remove what is there?
The neighbor next door?
Or who lives there and has the key,
To open or lock...
Both front and back doors.
Who is responsible,
For the mess that is left.

Accountability?
Few these days want to take it.
Believing it easy,
To place that on someone else.
The school teachers, police,
Preachers and priests.
Or some politician to pick,
As a 'jack of all trades'.
Yet expected to fix and solve,
Each and every problem...
Of their constituents.
Many will claim having no time,
Being involved to mend...
Ongoing issues they have created.
Then to protest them magically to end.

Changes needed to be made.
And long overdue.
Has to begin by taking,
From an entirely different...
But need not to be a difficult point of view.
Beginning from the inside out.
Not from the outside in.
With a getting that mirror,
As clean as possible.
Doing that done to clearly examine...
What it is that is seen,
To start the process!
Seeking not the image to imitate.
But sought to seek the pretense of it.
Ridding whatever is seen to know faked!

Without truth to face.
Or reality to embrace it.
What is there to change?
Another mask to wear?
Another charade to masquerade?