Jeering At the Past
by Michael Doyle

Too often, society burns with fire
Forgetting virtue for forms of desire
Progression is found in cinders burning
All of the lessons, we keep relearning

Brigands scoff at things of the past
Laughing at those things that didn't last
And believing the present holds the answers
Instead of recognizing its cancers

That consume the flesh and the soul
As the world around spins out of control
Realizing that love is a scary thing
From all the passion that it often brings

Some confuse strength for acts of cruelty
Subterfuge growing from life's brutality
Youth only knows life by its intensity
As it slips by aimless with uneven porosity

Look around and guess at what it is we see
As we peer out of shelters in curiosity
Life proves a museum of abandoned secrets
All the discarded hopes turned to regrets

These are the common mistakes with foot-to-pedal
Wondering what makes dreams worth the mettle
That it takes to find a measure of sensitivity
A pianissimo strikes the heart, taking inventory

Of who we are and who it is that we should be
In our ineradicable attitude of superiority
For simply falling for mistakes other than those past
And never guessing our time itself will not last

(c) September 20, 2023   Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved