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Sunday, June 12, 2011

No Matter What...

Over at Jingle Poetry's Poetry Potluck the theme this week is "Dictatorship, Autocracy, and Despotism"!!   They allude to all of us experiencing this in some way and have asked us to share a poem representing the experience. 

Though we did all that we knew how,
Still... nothing ever was quite good enough.
They teased, they poked at the seams now,
Walked away once, you said he wasn't tough.
Stood tall to fight, called him a sow,
Still, you wanted more, for us to be thou.

Always we did what you told us to do,
Yet this still was not right, you told us each day,
For we did all that we knew you wanted us to,
Still... somehow nothing was ever quite the way,
Studied hard, passed the test, what is the roo?
What is it that will be enough for you to say...

Finished growing... torn apart from the world,
Always... no matter what... the despotism you furled.

Petrina Lesko
June 2011

14 comments:

Stafford Ray said...

"Always we did what you told us to do,
Yet this still was not right, you told us each day".
That is the nature of all despotic organisations, political, religious, family. Designed to control by whatever means.
But once you see through it, as this poem shows, you are free no matter what they do.
Good stuff!
PS. May be time to back up your poems etc! They are too good to lose.
I finished my backup this morning and will keep a copy of every blog from now on. Blogger does not seem to have a responsive 'contact us' service so we need to take responsibility I guess.

Jingle said...

I can relate.

at times, working hard does not pay off, which makes one wonder ...
Glad to see you in.
Happy Potluck!

Elizabeth Rose Stanton said...

I think most everyone can relate to this in some way. Thanks for posting!

L.L. Barkat said...

My favorite line...

"Still, you wanted more, for us to be thou"

tarunima said...

nice use of the prompt:)
thanks for sharing!
i like the last two lines!

Brian Miller said...

that feeling of never being good enough or getting it right for someone...yeah, not a fun place to be at all...

Lyn said...

Can never measure up..push on and on, and yet no rewards..you portray that realization perfectly!

Butterflies of time said...

Very nicely expressed the frustration of never being acknowledged as perfect, always finding shortcomings even though the line is always toed.

Kavita said...

Ahh.. so intense and heartfelt, Petrina!
Sometimes, I wonder if we try tooooo hard to please someone... and if they expect just a little too much out of us! *sigh*
Either ways, when it gets to that point, it's just not fun anymore..

You said it well, my friend.. very well indeed!

Dasuntoucha said...

...Finished growing... torn apart from the world,
Always... no matter what... the despotism you furled
...

...deep.

Anonymous said...

I loved the last lines! Powerful message I think all of us have felt lacking for no matter how much we give greed and tyranny would have more

Anonymous said...

I can relate to this. It's hard to deal with 'not good enough'...Remarkable write -- more than good enough :)

Luke Prater said...

great response to the prompt. I find writing to prompts very difficult

Jhpoetry said...

some people are never satisfied. I can totally sympathize with this write. Very nice :)