Face Value

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    • mathiasthom
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    Face Value

    She said she was helping,
    because it was the Christian way
    like a lioness stalking a lamb,
    a complete, utter sham

    Dangle some money in front of this face
    won't jump at the chance
    there is no permanent space
    nor definite plans

    What is keeping him here?
    What is holding him back?
    An alienated life so queer,
    going down some strained path

    Won't ever live up to expectations
    there is a strange similarity
    between these different situations
    with the ensuing hilarity

    It's all there, waiting
    for the next argument
    where you have to justify
    everything taken as a lie

    No face value,
    it is what it is
    no apologies, please
    the stated niceties will strain

    mathiasthom
    written 3/23/11


     

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    Redhead505 commented on Face Value

    03-25-2011

    I like it. The meaning I derived (sometimes reader takes a different meaning than the writer intended) reminds me of a similar situation I sometimes face. Too often I hear the supposed Christian motive for an action when in fact, the person taking the action has no true Christian intention at all. Good write.
    Reply to Comment

    mathiasthom

    03/26/2011

    That pretty much sums it up, at least for me. Thanks for commenting.

    Insideme commented on Face Value

    03-24-2011

    I think you and I are alot alike because when I read this I felt like they were words I want to say about a person I know. Taking some one who has done you so wrong at face value is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do aside from being separated from my kids. Good honest and hard hitting (for me at least) poem of the greatest magnitude of brilliance!
    Reply to Comment

    mathiasthom

    03/25/2011

    thanks for commenting!

    Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

    Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.

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