“Never Said”

They said it would be different
That we could be anything
They didn’t tell me about the limitations society would impose
I guess that’s an attempt at maintaining the innocence of children

They never said fairy tales were works of fiction
Only that the fairies weren’t real
Foolish us, wanting to believe

They never said that encouragement was a safety net,
A slow death by strangulation
Grinding us into soullessness

He never said how love would turn to resentment
How us against the world would turn to us against each other

Our children never said that disappointment would become the standard
And we never told them that we weren’t qualified for the job 

© M. Black, 2017 All rights reserved.

“The Mature Mind”

Yesterday we accepted invitation
for social outing
with coupled friends
a stage of adult life
doing couple-things
with other paired hominids
as if somehow we expected
this was developmental progress

What they never tell us, is
the house will be filled
with a miasma of sickness
causing my skin to crawl
or how important
seating arrangements are
to avoid the disloyal eye
of those with less conviction

Despite childhood memory
portraying civilized behavior
well-wishes and sincere laughter
polished women drinking wine
with confident men
it seems

at a certain age
humans become incapable
of existence lacking
comparative standard
which can be surpassed

why is it
as children, we
never questioned purpose
behind banal reality
nor did we surround ourselves
with displayable objects
to fulfill the hope
of being desirable

If purpose is
what the adult seeks
meaning for it all
surely there can be
grander design, or
desire to achieve
than being seen as
but never being

Such notions remain
forgotten by matured mind
as these are only still
the ignorant imaginings
of a child

© M. Black, 2016 All rights reserved.