As If This Was Dessert Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Acquaintances they had,
With an assortment of personas known!
No one grew to know identities true.
A superficiality was all they shared.
All they dared and knew!
And this was accepted,
As a form of acknowledgement.
Handed done through generations...
Even those related,
Had no depth of who they were.
Or cared what that depth to them had meant!
With a self destruction taught,
And applied with skill...
They adopted missions,
To ruin themselves with disrespect...
An accomplishment met at will!
And when they realized,
They were killing their own kind?
In their minds they were too far gone...
And blind to the fact,
They were ending their bloodlines!
With each child slapped,
By an ignorant stance that held them back!
And destroyed the ones who sacrificed,
To keep them nourished with a love of self...
They severely did lack.
They despised the ones who told them that.
They were not raised to praise themselves.
Nor kept a pride they encouraged to flourish!
Discouragement was their prize.
Enjoying acts of scandal and slander!
Lies!
As if this was dessert,
To serve to those attacked...
Demoralized,
And criticized!