so they say

past

Seize your dreams;
they lie before you.
So they say.
If you work hard,
you’ll be successful.
So they say.

From commencement to commencement,
I excitedly heard it preached;
we were ushered through the portals,
to horizons yet unreached.

They said it all through school
and right up to this day.
Grades open the future;
performance lets you stay.
“You can take it to the bank.”
So they said.

What’s been said has not been seen,
we hustle without guarantee.
Tenaciously, quixotically
clutching dreams
founded on sands
of hearsay.


present

In this day,
with truth and falsehood,
can we say?
masqueraded and juxtaposed,
haven’t we seen?
promises darkened by light of day.
And who’s that they,
of
so
they
say?


If I knew then, what I know now,
exams and commissions wouldn’t matter,
and I would talk even more in class.
Voice and faith are ways to the better.
So I say.

“Do what you love,” and
“Follow your bliss.”
So they say.
But reality says, “Take what there is,”
and what you can find,
amidst these times.
Bliss sounds nice,
but it doesn’t pay,
so I grind
and toil
and search.

Economic growth,
jobs creation;
so they say.
The harvest great, the workers few,
did they say?
The evidence in this abundance
is scarcity and deception.
“We’ll pass the savings on to you,”
so they say.

Office cultures
are now enlightened,
so they say.
Most are buried
in the last century,
so we see.
Hostility seethes in tense détente,
while vertical resists horizontal.
Discourse reduced to monologues;
slick fixtures plopped on shopworn floors,
so we see.


future

“Keep hope alive,” and “hang in there,”
so they say.
Follow the trends and watch them change,
so we see.
If progress is to be pursued,
it’s an added, unpaid job to do;
through the woeful slowful silted slough,
persevere with conscience true;
because you say.

“Transparency” and “openness,”
so they say.
Dumb it down and settle for less:
No, I say.
Question euphemisms, all.
Smarten up, follow your call;
you must say.

Shake off the dust and guard your soul,
you can say.
Gimmicks, fads, and influencers
will not save.
Take your stock and prove them wrong,
Don’t let them take away your song.
You’ll have fought the fight and kept the faith.
You will say.