Labored Dreams Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Too long in a deep sleep,
I had to have been.

My ideals now swept away...
In view of the sadness,
Etched on once judgemental faces.

Did they not tease,
And refuse to acknowledge my aspirations?
Believing themselves to keep and dispense,
My every wish...
If they so chose to deliver without suspense.
And they loved to see my anger show.

Those of quickened steps paced,
Kept busy in a haste.
Now slowed by unemployment.
And a loss of dignity.

Did they not do that to me?
Crude and rude and thoughtlessly.

Too long in a deep sleep,
I had to have been.
To witness this stripping done.
And a quality of life lived,
Suddenly gone from some.

With more to come to know this...
Shifting of an economic sting.

Thought by many,
Never to their doorstep to bring.
Not with such a shutting down...
Of their labored dreams.

And the apathy shown...
To those too familiar with their struggles,
Dismissed.
Seem today more now than ever...
To be understood as it is lived.

With few feeling an empathy sincerely given.
Or a willingness to share,
Their dependence on subsidized grief...
That forces them to pinch,
On a daily basis.