One's Best To Give Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

There are times,
When one's best to give.
Shown to another done to do.
Is not enough to express appreciation.
To hear it to be near it,
Heard said or implied.
Until what is taken for granted,
Vanishes to be gone.

Leaving one's best to give,
Remembered for what it is.
Wondering if the wish of wanting,
What was given one can get back.
Hoping to find it available.
Sitting.
In a desperate need to be used.
By someone thoughtless, inconsiderate...
And habitually rude.

However...
Some folks will never know,
How to value what they have.
Or the meaning of it to keep respected.
To expect their neglect,
By anyone wanting 'that' to get back.
Would be a foolish assumption to make.
When one who knows what it is they give,
And has value.
It would only be a fool to assume,
The getting of it back is as easy as that.

"You want what? "

-What we had.-

"I gave you that.
And there was no 'we'.
If it had been,
The both of us...
Would have kept 'that' valued."

-I understand it now.-

"So do I.
And I thank you,
For reminding me to stay that way."

-Meaning? -

"What I give,
Not to value.
Has now become priceless.
And the giving it away,
No longer those mistakes I make."