Few Are Empathetic Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Challenges continue to be faced.
For one experiencing life.
Knowing those expectations,
With multiple choices to make...
Are yourthful visions providing escapes.

No one who has fallen,
To have their hands and knees scraped...
Gets up from being humiliated,
With a bowing done as if to entertain.
No one should accept falls to claim.

'I remember you.
I loved the way you fell.
To then look around,
With that look of embarrassment.
And the covering of your face,
With that jacket you took off...
As you ran through the crowded sidewalk,
Bumping into people.
I'll never forget how entertaining you were.
Are you a street performer? '

~No.~

'Well, you should be.
The attention you received,
I will remember for the rest of my life.
If I gave you 5 dollars,
Would you do that again?
For me and my friends.
We're taking a lunch break.
And I told them how precious,
What you did and how you did it...
To make you look like a fool who was chased.
PLEASE.
Can you repeat the doing of that for me? '

Challenges continue to be faced.
For one experiencing life.
Knowing those expectations,
With multiple choices to make...
Are yourthful visions providing escapes.

No one who has fallen,
To have their hands and knees scraped...
Gets up from being humiliated,
With a bowing done as if to entertain.
No one should accept falls to claim.
However...
There will be those,
Meeting the meaning of failure.
And...
For the first time to disbelieve,
Even when publicly observed...
Very few are empathetic.