If You're Told You're Bad...

Dollar devalued, can’t afford a slight comfort, was the first moment, the initiation, of awareness,

As the eye on the wall waves its hand,

In this process, we grow small, insignificant and condemned,

Bobbing, weaving, shooing, glances cheating,

Ignorant to the counter in front of you,

Focus on us, people wonder why,

The meandering, building suspicion in their eyes,

Black shirts, what do they say?

Long haired, all bad,

Bearded, grabs the children, shelter sight,

Uncertain, but afraid, of what we just might,

Wandering three, hoping to understand, needing to know what you see

Wrong place, wrong time,

Nice life, for you,

Try again,

Pay the fine,

Try again,

Tempers flare, a warning sign,

Larger stakes create, bigger falls to make,

Last strike from the match, falling down, gasoline accelerant,

Never earned the pinstripes, never tried the course,

The validation we’ve aroused, over prepared in how we thought, undeserved in what we got,

Nondescript, can’t find the phrase, walking anomalies fill the page,

Don’t know which words I should process,

To explain, in terms, in ways

Even the ignorant can’t avoid,

All this blame has really given me a complex,

Perhaps they have some energy,

Flowing through their observation,

Maybe they see something in me,

Something even I am blind to,

Am I really as awful as you’ve painted me?

If I am, how you claim,

It probably will only surprise,

The misunderstood, yet decent human being inside,

But for you, with the profile you’ve devised

A deviant action, is what I’d expect you to expect from me,

Meanwhile cloak and daggers have filtered through, no longer shrugging off the naïve attitude,

Is a coincidence but a reminder to the self?

Of a mission abandoned, where every man was left behind,

Why you had that eye patch you never used, a little voice you’ve always ignored,

Your conviction of my guilt, louder and clearer, thoughts once abhorred,

Your certainty of my worth might just sway me towards your point of view,

Resigned to, defined by, If you’re told so, you must be bad