Unforgiving (Poetry)

How can they comprehend? — They have
their neat, suburban, hedged-in lives
mapped out before them — boxes ticked
from playschool ’til the day they die.

So structured in the way they think
so disciplined — they wave the flag
and never stop to contemplate
the kind of life they might have had...

The mere idea of breaking free
would never cross the hardwired brain
they keep to limits — dare not leave
the safely boring middle lane.

And those who do escape the mould —
the rebel souls born brave enough
to buck the system — show the world
the cutting edge — forbidden stuff —

are feared and shunned or ridiculed
like madmen pounding on the gate
and shouting those obscene taboos
society won’t tolerate.

Usurpers all — their strange ideas
upset the children with their songs
and lure them off Pied Piper style
through cracks that widen — creep along

those careful walls to segregate
creative minds that wander free
from those that march in single file
on paths swept clean of anarchy.

They are an unforgiving race —
their witch hunts fill the evening news
with every outrage in the book —
they speculate, incite, accuse...

Self-righteous, narrow minded, deaf
to viewpoints that oppose their own
their doctrine censors — spreads its plague
and stills the voice that sings alone.