Inside Out Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Truth to live and experience,
What it is to feel and know.
Is a personal journey.
Not to be told about it.
But to feel it from the inside out.
Seldom to inspect before accepting,
From anyone else to eliminate doubt.

So many these days,
Faced with confusion, division.
And bigotry marinated,
In racial to debate the taste of hatred.
Are often the ones,
To have been taught it done.
Few to experience,
The feeling to know from the inside out.
But more will claim to blame...
The color of one's skin color and appearance,
As the cause for their ignorance.
Limited in experience or facts.
Yet...
Willing to allow themselves,
To participate in chaos and havoc!

And those who have lived,
Truth to know it for what it is.
From the inside out.
To listen less of it talked about.
Have discovered to feel and see for themselves,
The cause and effects...
Of racism, conflicts and division,
Are first taught within one's home.
To condone and despise,
One's own kind to dislike and criticize.
Practiced.
With that to share somewhere else.
Seeking approval and acceptance of it.

Done too much and too often.
Gaining support and endorsement.
By the ones seeking power.
Hoping to disguise,
The absence of truth to feel.
To smother and cover up...
Insecurities they've come to know much better!

Truth to live.
Experience.
Feel and know what it is.
Is a personal journey.
Many entitled to avoid,
Have yet to take.
To eliminate their own mental illnesses.
Inflicted upon others to pay the cost!
As they use excuses.
And creative alibis to continue to make.
At the expense of others to entertain!