Definitions Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Things began to define them.
Giving them reason and a purpose to live.
Living without things teased...
They felt an emptiness within.
With a shallowness they would defend,
With pretention.
And an awareness of self...
A depth did not know.
They did not grow to love themselves...
If they could not purchase things to define them.
And definitions of who they were...
Had to have style and be flaunted,
To identify themselves with cliques of importance.
And...
Where they had been and where they are going,
Depend on things obtained to impress.
And not the lack of substance...
No one has that to qualify,
To ensure that can be addressed or expressed
With comprehension understood and digested.