Maintain Your Defense Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Whatever you do,
Maintain your defense...
Against those who critique.
With a battling done.
By the use of weapons!
Delivered and supplied,
On the tip of embittered tongues.

Do not let that weaken.
And get underneath your skin.
Not at the expense of you losing sleep.
Or keeping your mind unable to be at peace.

Whatever you do,
Maintain your defense...
Against those who critique.
Recognize those insecurities,
Worn upon their needing to be fed egos.

Come to realize,
Your potential may be despised.
And jealousy and envy,
Are often hidden and disguised.

Where is the support that has been aborted?
Where is that brotherhood sought and proclaimed?
Where is that need for unity?
And 'why' do those pretensions remain sustained?