Out Of Breath
Lawrence S. Pertillar 1947 (Connecticut)
So many refusing to accept,
A growing older...
Is not their choice to make.
Yet insist upon stopping advancements made.
By those much younger and caring less,
Who it is living...
Attempting to preserve,
Their limited ignorance...
Kept cemented,
Forever in a fictioned past.
Gone.
Not to come back.
Wrinkled to shrivel are these old aging faces.
In positions seated to make decisions,
To believe this honors...
Their ancestors depicted to perceive as heros.
Getting free land and also assistance,
Without learning a word of English to speak.
Or write legibly.
But known to be peaceful settlers.
And declared owners of just a few,
Quantity of slaves.
Treated like animals stripped,
From their own homelands.
The young people know what the real deal is.
They are not isolated from truth.
As the old death door knockers,
Wish they were to prefer preserved...
Stories told about enemies,
Encroaching to approach...
The stealing of land.
Known to be theirs for centuries.
And laws to make and reinvent history.
Is a difficult task done to choose it to do.
When clearly to be seen,
To witness and observe not to imagine.
Are descendants of those peaceful settlers,
Videotaped.
Creating division, conflict and havoc.
With a doing to destroy a way of life,
Accused on illegal immigrants.
That can neither read nor write.
Ethnic diversity.
Especially those nonwhite.
And others arriving on their stolen shores.
What is it that these old people can not see.
Yet kept to believe.
With their wide open,
Denying yet defying eyes to them lie.
What is it,
That these old people will not see...
What the young have done.
To welcome THEIR future.
And not a past to idolize or symbolize,
The satisfactions...
Of those sitting with old aspirations.
Hoping to leave a lasting impression,
Upon their ancestors.
Ancestors...
They may not be unaware,
Or has occurred in their thinking process...
Are not only out of breath.
But no longer breathe!
And...
Wait for it!
No longer here, either!
'NO WAY?'
'I'm just saying.
Some folks talk about their ancestors,
As if they were armed with muskets...
During the signing,
Of The Declaration of Independence.
And the approval of their entitlements,
To do and choose...
Every ignorant thing they like.
Then threaten the lawmakers they elected.'
'NO...WAY!'
'YES...WAY!
And, today?
Whether heard to hear said or not,
Has no effect on eyes opened wide to see it!'
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Written on August 22, 2022
Submitted by lpahtillah on August 22, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:27 min read
- 6 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXXBCXDEXXX XFGXDXHGIXXX XXBXJXXJ KIXLGXXXMNKNX KXLHOKLAXFFLGGXBXXXOA CGBCDMXXE XXXO |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,387 |
Words | 490 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 8, 13, 21, 9, 4 |
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