Times Today Are Not What They Use To Be Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Many left on faded stages,
Find it difficult to accept...
Those who have gone from them to move on.
A routine repeatedly done to do,
So many unchanged have found excuses to refuse...
Have left them behind in times they find confusing,
To believe the ones that have stepped away...
Did this because of attitude,
And not because of maturity a process that aging does.

'You are much different than I remembered from 'high school'.'

~And I hope I don't offend you by mentioning this,
But a lot has happened since 1965.
These days I 'try' to do my best to remember,
Where I leave my keys to sometimes have them in my hand.~

'Times today are not what they use to be.'

~No time anyone is blessed to live,
Is what it was.
But you can't tell that to folks,
With minds switched off believing themselves timeless.
And like children wont hold themselves accountable,
For their own actions with them to blame on someone else to claim.~

'Times today are not what they use to be.'

~You're right.
Today truth is despised.
And liars are defended.
People can come into your home,
Cuss you out.
Steal what you've created to call it theirs.
Deceive others with straight innocent looking faces.
To then have others believe,
Someone they have character assassinated...
Is too sensitive to what has been done to them.~

'Tell me about it.'

~I just did.
That's how common the nonsense is today.
And I remember raising my eyebrow to a teacher,
Who threatened to tell my mother...
I showed signs of being disrespectful.
And today...
People will laugh at you 'inside' your own house.
Backstab you and then expect an apology for the doing.~

'Tell me about it.'

~I just did.~

'No.
I mean...I know.'

~Me too.~