Tripping Over Pettiness- The Poem

These are the people most parents
Warn their kids to avoid...
Running around with guys,
Getting pregnant out of wedlock,
Wondering why everything goes wrong.


Casualties of the 60's
Without knowing it.
Melissa, Billy, Mike, Ryan.
Creating casualties of casualties,
Such as five year old Caitlin.
Maybe Caitlin will have some brains
And rebel against the rebels
And go straight.

I know many casualties.
One is in the mirror,
The reflection could be Mike or Ryan, or Billy,
A casualty who knows no moral bounds
Or the wisdom of the ages left behind
That would have forewarned us of the consequences of such follies.

Oh well, what's done is done.
Time to pick up the pieces
And grow up.
Caitlin will grow up first,
Being surrounded by immature adults.

Melissa's obviously screwed up,
Having cut 'not her' into her arm.
Definitely not college material.
But miracles do happen...
(it's wise to give her some hope here,
-since she's so unbalanced and close to the edge...)

She is torn between her success in being sexy
And having three men and a child in her life
Who she can throw around as she pleases,
And the complete disaster
Everything has turned out to be.
She laments, "Oh, whatever happened
To the fairytale endings I knew as a child?"
Not realizing that those in the fairytale worlds
Lived in far more restrictive societies
Than our lost liberal culture today...

Melissa is determined not to let Caitlin end up like this...
And reminds herself with a little self-mutilation.
Just one more thing not to let Caitlin sink to...

Ryan left Melissa, they were once engaged,
(maybe there's hope for him, maybe not)
And fathered Caitlin.
Billy is Melissa's new boyfriend
And feels for Caitlin's suffering.
(A sense of responsibility, nice,
There is a glimmer of hope for the new generation).
Mike is the best friend of Melissa and Billy,
(And after witnessing all this
Probably will never get tangled up
With another female again.)

Melissa kicks Mike out and has him send Billy up-
Sure, maybe she can repeat her mistake all over again
And create another tragedy-
Maybe this time a boy
Who will grow up to be a woman abuser...

Casualties of a liberal society gone amuck? all.
Any hope for any of them?
There is always hope-
That's why Melissa cut 'not her' into her flesh
And did not push the dagger in deeper.
Games. Casualties. Vanity. Insanity.
And man still cannot reach the stars,
Still tripping over his own pettiness
On Earth.