You Don'T Live In The 'Hood' Do You? Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

This...
I want you to consider.
Now...
Whether you commit it,
To a kept acknowledgement to admit...
Doesn't make me any difference.

I didn't have to go anywhere to seek fame.
Fame sought me.
And God has promised my fortune comes.
Either one I regard,
As a blessing for that which I have already done.

You are 'not' Christopher Columbus.
You did not discover me.
I have been right here for many years,
Long before your interest in adventure...
Became the focus of your journey.

This...
I want you to consider.
Now...
Whether you commit it,
To a kept acknowledgement to admit...
Doesn't make me any difference.
But...
Who brought to 'whom' the attention?
The HEN or the EGG that was laid?

'I'm sorry but you lost me.'

Who sought 'whom'...
After the work had already been done?
To bring the attention,
Now known to everyone?
Remember this,
Committed to your selective memory or not.
If what was there and known by 'someone',
You would not have come to acknowledge me at all.
Is this true or not?

'It is true.'

Then why do you persist on keeping a pretentiousness,
Like you do?
And you accuse me of not remembering,
From where I came?
As if I was born to become ashamed of my own name?
The less sense you make,
The more I understand your vacant shallowness.

However...
I haven't left those same doorsteps,
When it was 'you' I introduced to fame.
Would you like to know the day and time,
Of your arrival and visit?
Would you like me to correct,
Whatever that is your reminisce?

'No.
I am beginning to get clarity.'

You should keep it with you like I do.
At all times.
The mind is too wonderful to waste.
But you don't live in the 'hood' do you?

'No.'

I've never left it.
That's how I keep my mind grounded.
To know when I am being 'hounded' by fools,
Who can not seem to leave their delusions.
Look around.
Don't let the reality of how I live bring to you fear.
And it is the same one that has been here,
Before you left to adventure...
With a seeking of my appearance.
Remember?

'Yes.'

Now...
Do 'you' need assistance to get back,
From where you came from?
Or did YOU forget?

'No.
It's all coming back to me now.'

Good.
That makes us both happy.
But I don't enjoy the camping.
Nor do I have the need.

'Huh? '

Don't worry about it.