?
To value education,
Or to spit on those who do.
By parents:
To be respectful, generous and honourable.
By peers:
To be rebellious and barbarous.
To decide on who to try
To be accepted by.
To change character
To what others only might wish it to be.
To strive to be accepted,
Or to continue the long lonely search
For your own perfect little community.
To be among those who belittle,
And not among the victims.
To disregard insults,
And to reply with another,
Or to feel, and become ever after
The aim of all insults.
To become ones facade,
Or to retain individuality.
To be passionate about life
And fight towards a goal,
Or to shrug your shoulders at it
And not really give a damn.
To choose which of the many
Roads, airways or networks
To travel down.
Paramount to these:
To be or not to be,
That is the question.
© R. A. W. S. Clarke
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