The Easiest One To Fool Poem by Josh Mitteldorf

The great and ancient creeds all have their laws—
We drink them deeply in when we are young.
One day, we recognize that we've been stung—
And wrest ourselves from long-familiar claws.

As youth out in a world without a map,
We start again and make up our own rules.
We b'lieve in them! How can we be such fools?
It's our complicity that baits the trap.

It's "right" and "wrong" that cause us so much pain.
We make them up, we know, but still they seem
So mighty and so real that we refrain
From laughing at the dragons that we dream.

It's true—no one can tell us how to be.
But absent structure, how can we be free?