Using You

The ingenue, the new-at-this

Found fear where she expected bliss.

The give-and-take, the shared support,

Is different when you take by force.

Then along came the activist, who told the abused

“You ought to leave. She's using you.”

At that request for something else,

She told the story of herself,

At schools, at functions, down the list

Compiled by the activist.

Then along came the poet, who told the confused

“The activist is using you.”

With requests and offers none,

The poet knows not what he's done.

Though just at hand, another's tool,

We're all blind to unbroken rules.

Life teaches, or you teach yourself

That life is use by someone else.