Why Do We Always Have With Us Poem by Francis Duggan

Why do we always have with us this sense of self esteem
When to the eyes of the judgemental we are not what we seem
Many dream of wealth and success on their highway to renown
But for the one that builds you up there are two to drag you down.

In the minds of the judgemental a fair go does not exist
Of expressing negative opinions on others they cannot seem to resist
In their assessment of others a fair go they don't apply
You show them a happy person they say appearances can lie.

We all have great dreams for ourselves even the battered wife
She once dreamed of love and happiness and success in her life
But of the man she loved and married she now lives in fear
Of happy dream come true stories we do not often hear.

'Tis everybody for themselves in the big World out there
And as in love and war and other things life is not always fair
For those who dream of greater things there is so much at stake
The uphill road to success is full of casualties and disappointment and heartbreak

Why do we always have with us this desire in life to succeed
When the only pathway from success us to the reaper lead
And I speak for myself when I ask am I any greater than the short lived butterfly
It lives for a week at the very most and I too like it must die.