Not One To Cross Poem by Gary Diamond

I wished for the doors to shut
I wished for the final curtain
I wanted you, the unwanted, to give me that
But both of us were uncertain.

I heard you talking upon the phone that to me was barred
I would ring many a number
Try to
But hear nothing but long paused beeps.
All I had to do was use the telephone once
And away it flew.

I would hear your music played for a short time loud
Then I too would play what I liked loud.
Your fists would berate the door
And down would go the volume.

You would preach about the internet to get me in the door
But then when that was all I wanted
Pull that away and call it off limits.

You would say it is easy going here.
But our definitions do differ wildly.
What you might call freedom
I would call patronizing
I would call control freakishness
The thing that drove your friends
And your family
Well away.

You would impress with the multi-channel television.
You would say use this wonderful device any time
Then what you did well was stop paying the bill
So it cancelled itself out anyway.

You still claim that all the bills are paid.
When I see the final demands
Stacking up to the right of the breadboard.

You have a woman in a town one hundred miles away
To solve your common problem you propose
Some kind of marriage
Yet you are still married
Yet your responsibilities pile up
Around and beyond your thin skinned shoulders.

Yes although right now you are not one to cross.
You certainly sicken and appall me
Because how well you embody
All that strikes me as shoddy
Currently
About this faith-striken
Society.