Dirty Mouth

By Cliff Lake

 

Dirty Mouth

 

The bad words.

Use one and your class diminishes.

I’m not trying to control you,

No, no!

I’m just limiting how you may express yourself.

This elevates me in anyone’s estimation,

Especially my own,

Surely you can see that.

And please,

Do not attempt to disagree,

It’s my opinion,

And that invalidates the fact

That the words I don’t care for

Are an integral part of the common lexicon.

How else may I enforce my imagined superiority?

Surely you don’t actually believe

That I will make an effort

To be a better person on my own account,

When it is so much easier

To make up the rules as I go along.

Don’t call it censorship!

It’s just how I feel,

And because my feelings matter

More than your necessity

To speak in that crude manner,

We’ll be doing things my way, yes?

Yes.

Everyone knows those words are bad,

Or they would be in books.

And if I find a book with the bad words,

Then it is a bad book,

And you know how that’s being handled.

Why, before you know it,

Freedom of expression of this sort,

Will lead to freedom of ideas,

To thinking outside the box,

And you must fit into that box,

So that I can lock you in,

And then you will cease to be

So troublesome.

Now about those clothes…

 

Cliff Lake 11/30/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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