Hold That And It Against Me Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

I once crawled,
Before I learned to walk.
Hold that against me.
I once wore a diaper,
Before I learned to talk.
Hold that against me.

I once made mistakes,
To repeat them again.
With a doing until I understood,
Mistakes to make,
I could and would correct.
But each mistake I made to do,
Had been different from the ones...
From others that came next.

I made decisions not to expect,
Criticisms would come.
And some I made left me,
With nowhere to run.
Hold that against me.

Hold it against me,
The doings of my childhood...
And in my youth,
Would follow me by those...
Seeking to undo my endeavors to pursue.

Hold it against me,
Things I did you remember...
Better than I do.
Hold it against me,
Whatever it is you wish.
But know this...
I am not remembering any obstacles I faced.
Nor do I keep in my mind to embrace,
A living my life being chased...
By impressions others think I should make.
Hold it against me,
If my life lived to do...
Disappoints those remembering,
What I've done to do to leave the past.

Hold it against me,
Things I did you remember...
Better than I do.
Hold it against me,
Whatever it is you wish...
I don't miss at all,
With wishes to recall what I've lived through.

I once crawled,
Before I learned to walk.
Hold that against me.
I once wore a diaper,
Before I learned to talk.
Hold that against me as well.
But know this...
What I use to do,
In my mind does not stay to dwell.
Nor do I sit to reminisce,
Those who seem unable to live their own lives.
Hold that and whatever you wish against me.
Pettiness and I have never been eye to eye.

And if someone does me wrong,
To step on my toes...
Day and night long to mask their evil tasks,
To choose to do to have them last.
I will not be the one,
Limping around to be seen...
As to who lives a life to have such misdeeds,
Returned to have them happen.
To cripple those minds or bodies to witness done.
So don't hold that or the doing of it,
Against me.
That is the doing that comes from their own pleasures.