Lost In Dismay

Do you spend twenty percent of your time
  acquiring your beliefs

And eighty percent of your time
   in defense

Do you have blinders on
  about what you conceive

In fear of the critics
  pretense

Are your views narrow focused
  and then watered down

As the truth disavowed
  slips away

Is your memory tainted
  in times left to waste

As your efforts
  —retreat in dismay

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2019)