Love Poem: Shopping List

Shopping List

"Shopping List"

Sister Kathy's going shopping and she's asked me for my list,
Needing LOTS of help, so I could not her, resist...

I have a Shopping List not too very long,
But the items listed must be sadly wrong.
My list was made awhile ago, still incomplete,
For it seems I'm shopping for things obsolete,
Or at the least rare, very scarce to uncover,
No longer cultivated, to find, to discover.

At the very top is Love, which should be everywhere,
But not so easy is it to find, leaving me in despair.
I can find ego alright, aplenty all around,
But humility? ..So little to be found.
There's apathy and indifference, an abundant supply,
But finding empathy and compassion, the well's gone dry.
Everywhere I turn, there's justification freely spread,
Yet, no accountability found, as others are on, tread.

Truth and honesty are on my list, second from the top,
It seems though, they're out of stock every place I shop.
While lying and deceitfulness are generously promoted,
Handed out like candy, so sweetly, sugar coated.
Honour and respect have become out of season.
Patience and acceptance have lost all their reason.
Gratitude and thankfulness left with news of yesterday;
Now everything is about 'me' the headlines read and say.

Other things I've listed like kindness, hope, and caring,
Compassion and forgiveness, not many up for sharing.
Understanding's not in style, a fad of yesterday,
Passing judgement onto others now on display.
Modesty and privacy, their contracts have run out,
With ostentatious behaviour flaunted all about.
Consideration for others, indefinitely placed on ice,
Manners and politeness gone, along with friendly, nice.

All the many values to build character needed, 
Integrity and virtue, all practically depleted.
Principles and convictions, rocks on which to stand,
Have all but washed away, leaving only shifting sand.

I made my list awhile ago but without much success,
For all the shopping done has caused me great distress.
Even words I'm shopping for can't be found with ease,
Like, "I'm sorry" or "Thank you" or the one, "Please".
I never thought my list to be so arduous a task,
Until I went shopping and then I had to ask,
For items I thought to be to all near and dearly,
Their scarcity alarms me, saddens me severely.

Up and down I've searched, aisle after aisle,
A rarity indeed should I see a happy smile.
I enter every store, every shopping mart, 
Hoping just to fill my empty shopping cart.
I am lucky if I can find just one or two or three
Of the items I've been searching for in every shopping spree.
But the saddest thing of all on my list, at the very top,
Is that genuine Love is hard to find no matter where I shop.

What's so really sad you ask about Love in short supply?
Because Love is within all of us, but still we shun it. Why?
It does seem my Shopping List is much longer than I thought,
But surely ‘twould be nice to find everything I’ve sought.
It is my wish one day to find abundantly all of the above,
And shining in everyone’s hearts the item we know as Love.

Written by Artsieladie/Sharon Donnelly
©2014-05-04
All rights reserved.