The Wall Of Pretense Poem by Anita Atina

Now that the wall of pretense has broken down
What do you see?

While we still present a normal picture to the world
What do we portray to each other?

How do we hide the emptiness, that crept in day by day
To create the wide gulf, we live with today

We don’t need to hide, but clean breaks happen only in fairy tales
Of if we choose to make reality, more brutal

Altered reality requires a change of pattern
Not unchanged clinging to a past that’s gone

That’s easier said than done, when there is the umbilical
Flesh and blood of our future generations, holding us

So that each word and act is measured in the present
As it ripples into the future, where we may be afar, but never fully apart