Pretentious

This presence you choose to display
Only hardens our loyalty instead
Hurt by the words left unsaid
As if the past was all just a mistake
No matter how the game did play
Your actions are not misread
The tears that surely are shed
Because you simply will walk away
If the meaning of success for your team
Discounts the players you left behind
Where sportsmanship has lost its value
For raising yourself does deem
A coward who is simply so blind
To what you are and what you should do

07.24.11

Sideline View

What only can be sought
Or released in his exertion
You capture in his mistakes
And toss back trying to hurt him

To withstand your raw reprimanding
And suspending the actions around
Hit harder than you might have expected
To reveal this that has been found

Twenty lashings would have hurt less
And he might have moved yet forward
But kicking him while he was down
Only reflected what could have been avoided

It was a poor example of your claim
That you will strive to make him better
It is clear now that there had to be
Many hidden storms he has had to weather

So justify your words with his faults
And pretend that it doesn’t matter
While you never saw him at his worst
You should know we strive to capture

What can only be achieved
Or gained in his true person
He finds in his own worth
Where you only more will worsen

Anger from the storms we’ve endured
And the example you choose to lead
But you have forced him to further shut down
Because you have already planted the seed

It is rivalry at its best
And one that we will never overcome
To say we tried but can try no more
Is the only way this game can be won

10.04.09