I Have This Philosophy

As a child I had threatened to run away.
In fact...
It was either the fourth or the fifth time,
When I made that anoouncement...
To come to realize,
No one was paying me any attention at all.
And on one of those occasions,
My mother told me to take out the garbage...
Before I went anywhere!

She really didn't understand the severity of the moment.
I was all of ten years old and extremely serious.

I was trying to make this point...
I was going to be missed!
My niece, Shayla, did the same thing.
But she came back home to say to her parents,
She had a need for her checkbook and had forgotten it.

Like me...
She has excellent penmanhip.
AND she doesn't play.
Or has time for nonsense.
She's all business and serious.

'Go Shayla.
I'm so glad you discovered adulthood! '

We both had lots to learn about life.
Especially the part of life that one learns...
DO NOT BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS,
Anythng connected to your survival.
Including those who give lucrative allowances...
To afford our checkbooks...to forget!
I love my niece.

As young people,
We begin to test those independent waters...
Early.
Many of us were forced to.

But as we grow...
Those 'come-and-find-me' games,
Are a bit childish, tired and very old.
And when one plays them over fourty...
Something should connect in their minds,
They play these games alone.

I have this philosophy about life...
If you can not teach a grown cat hygiene,
And if an adult runs into hiding...
In fear of reprisals for something wrong they've done.
Only to seek, ultimately, a pat on the back.
To be stroked like a missing cat when they return....
That person is in need more than 'a' lesson to learn.

That litter box needs to be put outside of the house for good.

'What does that mean? '

I did not say it was a 'good' philosophy...
To be quickly understood.
Some philosophies have to sit and marinate,
Longer than some.
I said I 'have' this philosophy about life.
You figure it out!
It has to be lived to enable it to make sense.

And stop looking at me like that!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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