Travesty Of Brilliance Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

A travesty that shadows brilliance,
Contorts the showing of it...
In atmospheres where foolishness,
Seems worshipped and condoned.

Those who have a brilliance,
Are made to feel freaks.
Made to feel unusual whatever they do...
And often how they speak.
With a clarity understood!
That is not butchered on the streets.
Are pointed out as smart and/or 'lucky'.
And should move away to succeed.
Since where they live and feel a comfort...
Only disrespect they can expect to receive.

A travesty that shadows brilliance,
Leaves many disadvantaged...
With an unconscious acceptance,
Of a stifling ignorance.
Smothering them and in their decadence.
And...
In many communities where unity is professed...
A preferred association with ignorance,
Many profess as their success.
With a known evidence of it achieved.

To be brilliant and exposed,
Threatens those with insecurities.
Expecially those who are clueless,
With no connection to identity or to what that means.

To achieve mediocrity is a stretch for many!
And for more it is out of reach.
And those who are brilliant in the own communities...
Are treated as if they have leprosy.
OR something that disfigures them to be ostracized,
Shunned and banned.
Ridiculed by minds diseased.

And this travesty of brilliance,
Sweeps across a degraded land!
Showing just what influences.
And how corrupted insecurities...
Can destroy and ruin by command.