Stability Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Standards have begun to become,
Redefined.
Limits imposed to restrict to conformity,
No longer today represents the 'norm'
When being 'normal' meant,
A keeping in step with others.
With a doing to prove a remaining fixed,
To values accepted would never change.

Finding that 'good' job with benefits to get,
Had everyone young preparing for retirement.
Stuck and caught up,
In the making of impressions.
And in between those deluded years to devote,
People would acquire 'things' to bring...
Comparisons made to share with glee,
With those who also shared...
How proud they were to acquire such success,
To do it equally.

So many were heard protesting,
Their rights for an 'equal' THIS or THAT.
And who dreamed to live,
On the other side of the 'tracks'.
Tracks now found to be trashed and/or abandoned.

Credit to get with it easy to achieve,
Had many believing this is the life to live.
Until reality became a vicious threat.
And words such as...
Downsizing. Outsourcing and being laid-off,
Were tossed about without safety nets.
To introduce to challenge mindsets,
Where would their beliefs kept had gone.

'If you don't like it here,
Go back to where you come from.'
Comments once made,
By the ones now discovering...
The expense of their own charades.

Standards have begun to become,
Redefined.
Stability shown to others known,
Isn't what it use to be.
Anyone today able to stand up on two feet,
After being punched in the gut...
By thieves and their greed,
Who had been blatantly corrupted...
Is an accomplishment to achieve.

Especially today...
When many are creating few new excuses,
As to why they have come to find...
Conforming to this kind of 'normalcy',
They would rather leave behind to define...
For those attempting to prove,
They are the ones these days 'not' crazed.
When it is clear who is and who is not,
Completely distant from minds...
Long gone from any definition of stability.

'May I share your cardboard box with you? '

~This is not a duplex.
I know,
Looks can be deceiving.
But this is a one room flat.
To be folded and carried on my back.
And you...
Seem to be fresh from the 'condos'.~