<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Irresistibly Fish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://brettfish.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[brettfish]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://brettfish.wordpress.com/author/brettfish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[a pome: keep it to&nbsp;yourself]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>sh!</p>
<p>don&#8217;t talk.</p>
<p>don&#8217;t challenge.</p>
<p>whatever you do, don&#8217;t try to get me to think&#8230;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>just nod,</p>
<p>smile,</p>
<p>pat me on the back,</p>
<p>enthusiastically high five me as we pass each other,</p>
<p>to validate this current choice i&#8217;m making</p>
<p>&#8216;like&#8217; my current status</p>
<p>retweet my popular point of view</p>
<p>please don&#8217;t dare to hold my latest hypocracy up to the light</p>
<p>or unravel the threads of my present inconsistency</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>after all,</p>
<p>when did what i believe</p>
<p>ever have to stand anywhere near what i do?</p>
<p>surely that kind of behaviour</p>
<p>is for far lesser folks than i?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>give me your cheers,</p>
<p>your applause</p>
<p>or at least your salutations</p>
<p>don&#8217;t drop your eyes</p>
<p>or sigh</p>
<p>as you pass me by</p>
<p>on this cyber highway</p>
<p>or the same passageway we might find ourselves on together</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>affirm</p>
<p>confirm</p>
<p>even praise or agree with your muted silence</p>
<p>but please don&#8217;t take me on</p>
<p>or you will instantly become &#8216;the judgemental one&#8217;</p>
<p>while i sit back in my satisfied smugness</p>
<p>and continue to work at</p>
<p>shining the ever so smooth stone in my hand</p>
<p>as i wait for the next innocent body</p>
<p>who might possibly question</p>
<p>anything i hold dear</p>
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