The People They Have Become Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Many with few life experiences,
May never get the opporunity to comprehend...
With an understanding that comes to them,
That a wisdom obtained is gained...
From acknowledging mistakes made.
And facing obstacles to remove.
Without avoiding them to make excuses,
Like many living often do.

Or finding fault with others to accuse and blame,
With attempts to undermine and publicly shame...
Their efforts to endeavor to make unwarranted claims,
That unknown lessons others were made to learn...
Had been the same as theirs to compare and imagine.
But not theirs to have had the life to experience,
To know the difference between,
Reality and exaggerated to embellish actions.

'We all came from the same place.
The ghetto. The 'PROJECTS'.
You feel me?
And I 'know' they could not have lived a life,
As drastic as they said it had been.'

~And how do you know that? ~

'We all went to the same schools.'

~Oh?
College or military schools? ~

'No.
Elementary, junior high and high schools.
But they are no longer there anymore.
Only one had been rebuilt.
And moved to another location.'

~Really?
And just how long ago was that? ~

'It had to have been more than 50 years ago.
But people don't change that much overnight.
Even if they had lived in other places,
To have married and divorced...
OR suffered to heal from life threatening diseases,
To believe themselves to know more than others.'

~Well...
Maybe it's not so much what they believe.
But the people they have become to be.
And to have done it without your approval.
Or to know what took place within those 50 years.~

'Some people don't know how to be down to Earth,
Like some of us who have not forgotten...
Where we've come from to remember it as if yesterday.
And that's the problem THEY have.'

~I see what you mean.
That 'is' THEIR problem.
A problem that shouldn't be of your concern.
Especially after 50 years.
OR more.~