The Bubble

(A weak attempt at poetry by Jeff McQ)

Ahem…[clears throat]…

I lived inside a bubble
Where everything was comfubble….

(eeew…let’s try that again…)

I lived inside a bubble long ago
Where all inside was safe and sterilized
With all the evils of the great unknown
Conveniently ignored and hid from view

And others lived within the bubble, too
And we enjoyed the bliss of ignorance
Our bubble-world, to us utopia
Protecting us from chance and circumstance

And everything made sense within the walls
A micro-world, with everything controlled
Unanswered questions gnawing at our souls
Could easily be shoved beyond the veil

We kept each other safe with subtle fear
Reminding one another of the dark
And all the dangers there, that lie in wait
Convinced us not to venture far beyond

Yet over time, my curiosity
Was raised–but not about the great unknown
For I began to see, within our world,
The danger signs we’d warned ourselves about

The evils of the outside world I’d feared
Were showing up within our very lives
The people of our private, sheltered world
Were struggling just the same as those outside

To my dismay, before my eyes, I saw
This bubble did not shelter us at all

So I began to question more and more
Curious, this time, to know the truth
Was everything different than I believed?
What then was true, and what, in fact was not?

My questions drew suspicion from the rest
Suspicion grew to anger after that
Continuing to believe that all was well
Discomforting, the thought that all was not

Warned I was, the same as done before
Of venturing beyond our safety zone
To me, our cheap naievity revealed
Still hidden by their blissful ignorance

So, warnings still behind me, off I went
Slowly at first, but still beyond the wall
And evils there were, even as described
But nothing worse than what I’d left behind

And as I pondered, then I realized–
The bubble had been only in our minds

I lived inside a bubble long ago
My sheltered world collapsed, but looking back…
The bubble never kept me safe and sound–
It only kept my blissful ignorance

And yet, the bubble gone, still I am safe
And have been all along, for now I see–
While I once thought my bubble was my shield
Someone still greater ever covers me