POETRY: REGRET by Reggie Drake

Sometimes we take things for granted.

The small things we overlook with snooty faces,

Never seeing the full picture,

And always looking past the underlying message.

Fathers and Mothers break their backs to mollycoddle,

To spoil children,

Who return this well-intentioned parental affection with an undying desire for more.

Never satisfied.

Grandfathers breath life into lifeless anecdotes of times gone by,

To instill sagacity and values into grandson's,

Who in return, pursue hedonistic lifestyles,

As if to rebel against the presumed wisdom of the old;

Like the prodigal son who's morals expire amidst carnal desires.

Adam and eve had everything they could ever need,

When it all collapsed like a utopia corrupted by human err,

When Eve received the fruit of sin that ensued God's wrath.

The art in life is to get it.

But we can't seem to get it.

Juveniles flunk fast and infect streets with deadly doses of poison packed drugs;

Doing "business" that has no business being done.

If only they had listened to Uncle David that one time when he said,

You live by the sword you die by the sword.

Uncle Dave is starting to make sense now isn't he?

Now that life if falling apart,

And you can barely hold it together by the string it sits upon;

Only now looking back through the looking glass;

Only now seeing what the mind could not previously discern....

He finally understands.

Affliction floods the inner chambers of his conscience like a broken dam,

Eager to conceal devastating water.

Uncle Dave never existed.

He was simply a spiritual guide inside the mind that differentiates right and wrong.

Important diminutive details were omitted by his outermost arrogance,

And he failed to perceive what inwardly he already knew.

He now sees and wishes he could break free.

But he is enclosed by the compact walls of his prison cell.