Why, as we grow older
do we lose the innocence of youth
are ageing and innocence mutually exclusive
is it because innocence affords us no protection
leaving us defenceless
easy victims
and so we abandon it
as we come to know the world that we inhabit
a world that tells us to expect the worst
and as we look for the worst
and find it all around us
our focus is lost to wonder and opportunity
our openness and willingness to trust
branded silly and naïve
dangerous even
the awe that filled us when young
that had us keen and vibrant
fearless and full of expectation
has become the currency of the childishly gullible
of little value in the ranks of lost innocence
and so
having left our youth behind us
and with it our innocence
an innocence that inspired us
permitting us to be open and unguarded
to accept our world at face value
to be impulsive and trusting
to believe in innate goodness
we have
with the guiding wisdom of age
decided
that it is no longer prudent
to unquestioningly offer our hand
to unreservedly open our heart
to smile and welcome people in.
Expctaisons…
No, it’s spelled “expectations.”
I spelled it wrong.
I disfigured the written word.
I am mediocre.
If you couldn’t tell.
I didn’t intend it that way.
But then it was five years later.
I am trying to maintain the illusion of being stubborn.
Because in the wrong circumstances, I am fragile.
Which maybe aren’t mutually exclusive?
Anyway,
I am mediocre.
But at least I have a nice smile.
“I, who am strong, must bear with you, who are weak.
I can mentor if it’s strength and wisdom you seek.”
“I, who am weak, must bear with you, who indeed
think highly of self and just some Scriptures heed.”
April 26, 2022
entered in the Killing with an Epigram contest
Sponsor: Margarita Lillico
...I see people who celebrate
power only for its own sake,
who see tradition not as wisdom,
but just as something they should break,
who strip stories off all their heart,
replace that heart with talking points,
and when faced with other ideas
they throw a tantrum, wreck the joint.
Some expose their own families
for having their own point of view,
they hate your faith, but speak of theirs
and they’ll sick the hate mobs on you.
They’ll riot and burn down cities,
all while claiming it’s justified,
then act appalled when the same’s done
by the folks on the other side.
They’ll say they're ‘fighting racism’
with a segregated safe space,
then claim your skin is ‘identity,’
and to deny this means you ‘hate.’
They’ll protect any perversion,
no matter how sick or vile,
and hide their rich friends from the news
when shown to be pedophiles.
They’ll kill sixty million unborn,
celebrate the great evil done,
you can’t really be a leftist
and still remain a good person.
These things have become mutually exclusive.
Stopped off for eggs
with ham(thought about keeping kosher for a while)
Have to say the ham was tasty!
Came up into the ESL Lab
My supervisor said he likes his
councilman
At 84 my mother
works 4 days for a Democratic Councilman
Whom I have spoken with
If I run for office
My platform would
be
More poetry open mikes!
Poetry can save your life
if you let it into your heart
Politics matters but:
EVERYTHING IS NOT POLITICAL
Voted the other day
I always do
I am a good citizen
So my fellow good citizens
reading this ode
Bet your behinds to the polls and vote
Eugene McCarthy and Abraham Lincoln
both wrote verse
Politics, poetry
Not mutually exclusive
So
I dream in the morning
As lowly constructs constrain at night
Coercing my memory:
Death's cousin makes me their dancing fool
As a child, I had nightmares and thieves--
They indulged their appetites from my solace
Now, I only dream in the daylight
For my sleeping beauty calls me at night
"My Heart Is Unobtainable," she says
I wake as I had gone to sleep--
I do not dream of intangible mystery:
Not flying cows, or Dali's Persistence of Memory
I ask: are sleep and rest mutually exclusive?
For, the night owns my mind
Each night, I recall my dreams of old
My subconscious repeats their feckless words:
'My sleeping beauty never wakes
And soon, I will recall
I know this much, we both are fakes...
We never feel at all'...
there are those who frown upon talk of the political
as if power struggles in their own lives simply did not exist---
they act as if the political only dealt with those vultures in suits
whose talking heads bobble back & forth
to the sound of coins bouncing & echoing in the
coffers,
but everything is political---
all aspects of human life
counteract each other through movements of power
be them small or large---
for the personal political &
the universal political
do not separate---they are not mutually exclusive &
therefore to deny oneself an understanding of these realities in our
present world,
is to deny oneself of the very possibility
to improve your own life as well as those living around you---
better to stay awake,
even if sleep may be restful &
though our final slumber may not be too far off,
to close your eyes just because you don’t like what you see
or cup your hands over your ears,
just because you don’t like what you hear,
only shows that
YOU
have instead developed a taste for denial & ignorance
in
OUR
world.
Attention, all you men and ladies:
Hurry - here’s your chance
To get your very own Mercedes;
See how it enchants!
Take a look – it’s sleek, not bruised;
Its body we have honed.
Who told you that this car was used?
It’s certified pre-owned!
Of course those terms are not the same!
They’re mutually exclusive.
Being “used” connotes some shame,
While “pre-owned” is elusive.
I guess it means it was possessed
By someone very rich
Who, though he really liked it best,
Was forced to make a switch.
So here it is, for you to buy.
You’ll join the true elite;
And that is why the price is high –
Our salesmen are discreet.
You’ll feel so special when you drive
This car that’s almost new.
The envious will all contrive
To be as cool as you!
Ilene Bauer (http://primetimerhyme.blogspot.com)
If to err is human
and forgive, divine;
There are many more humans
than divinity in
this world of mine.
My love.
Your words, last ones,
echo in my head today:
“I think the difference is
you’ve made your peace with it.”
And then.
9 months later, in my dreams,
a different sentiment was
voiced from your lips:
“I feel there’s a little
piece of me inside you.”
But love,
peace and piece,
think and feel,
Why must they be mutually exclusive?
It seems we cannot have both.
I cannot find peace within my mind
if pieces of my heart
are still with you.
Neither do pieces of your thoughts
give my heart peace.
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