Selective Memory Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

If I had not been there for you,
With interest...
To take you through steps,
A, B and C...
You would not have been enabled,
To celebrate your acquired self righteousness...
With perceptions you feed others to believe,
I had been strict and mean to you.

Who introduced to you discipline?

The ones deserving of your scathing accusations,
Expressed no interest in your success.
The ones deserving of your scathing accusations,
Were not around and absent to address your laziness.
Who introduced to you discipline?
Who was there with expectations you do more not less,
Of your very best.

'What is it you are saying to me? '

I am not the one who suffers from a selective memory.
If I had not been there for you,
Who would have made it possible...
For you to identify options?
Options you did not have before your attempts,
To exaggerate the facts of your past.

'But you were mean.'

Remember...
I chose to remain on the scene,
To express to you an interest.
I didn't leave like the others...
To address my own selfishness.
However...
Today I can say I've made up for that.