Things Verboten (Unspoken) (Poetry)

Why did no one ever tell me
those things I need to know?
No one registered the problem —
when best to stay or (wisest) — go

Each day’s chock-full of guesswork
I’m wrong-footed half the time
life’s a never-ending riddle
and it seldom makes a rhyme

For I never got the memo
nor a copy of the rules
those essential scraps of knowledge
no one lectures on in schools

There were questions no one answered
subjects quickly brushed aside
and then instantly forgotten
suffocated so they died

Words in need of explanation
stir a stammer or a blush
such embarrassment will likely
cause an awkward kind of hush

But why won’t anybody listen
when it does no one any good
to pretend those things unspoken
can’t be said ... Fact is they should!