To What Extent? Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

To what extent?
Does an intended pain inflicted,
Comes to end a bitterness felt?
To never subside that hurt inside.

To what extent do deliberate acts,
Of innuendos and assumptions...
Create the basis for one to fight back?
After wounds have been healed and eyes dried.

To what extent and purpose,
Are conflicts needlessly started not to relent...
For reasons begun without a trace of facts.
Or a use of common sense involved in that.

And to what extent is fear sold to sell,
When the investment spent in the time doing this...
Could have prevented the heating hiding yet dwells,
That swells and grows into an unforgiving hell.

To what extent are those seeking to convince,
Others have circumvented an accountability...
And a responsibility unshown yet by them meant,
But an immaturity known and accepted to condone...
Has made blaming someone else a much easier task.