Before Someone Knocks On My Door Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I know this may come as a disappointment to you,
But I will not consider to debate or contemplate to argue...
About anything that is two feet beyond my front door,
With my nose over someone else's fence.
Since I know for a fact,
My own backyard aint perfect.

And my neighbors and I have already agreed,
IF ever we heard something for 'us' not to be true...
Not to accept what someone says, does or do,
MILES away...
To stir up interest in conflicts,
People have between themselves...
To ruin the peace we've worked too hard to keep,
Right here.

With a knowing,
There have been many times we have allowed...
Our own grass to grow without budging to cut it.
Or wonder why flowers we have planted,
Have yet to bloom.
And the facts of that,
We need not hear from anyone else...
Who have yet to lift a finger to clear our weeds.
We've just begun to connect the reasons.

I know this may come as a disappointment to you,
But I will not consider to debate or contemplate to argue...
About anything that is two feet beyond my front door,
With my nose over someone else's fence.
Since I know for a fact,
My own backyard aint perfect.
And I'm not seeking perfection.
I just want to reach a point where the acceptance,
Is under my control FIRST.
BEFORE someone knocks on my door,
To get me to solve problems THEY'VE let themselves create...
With me rushing to help them clean up their trash.
In the past? I might have.
Today? No.

And there's enough littered trash around here,
To convince those who have done it...
They need not to protest to get it cleaned up.
And it has taken my neighbors and myself,
YEARS to realize how that trash got there.
Trust me...
We use to blame THAT on other folks.