Young men discovering that that "real religion" (the truth) cannot be found by sitting in church listening to old men (or even young men) preach, but that a glimpse of "the truth" might be found in the "school of hard knocks" (like war, divorce, and/or getting fired, etc.) by allowing such incidents to teach us what it means to be decent human being, and thus to how to live a decent life.

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Young men,
Silently,
Sitting in,
Strait-backed,
Pews.

Forced,
To listen,
To old,
Men's,
Sermons.

Old time religion,
Pat answers,
Questions,
Not,
Allowed.

Mere,
Children,
Roaming,
The playgrounds,
Of life.

Imposing,
Their beliefs,
Upon others,
As if they know,
The truth.

Yet,
The tribulations,
Of life,
Compel us,
To wonder why,

Poor men suffer,
In the midst,
Of the rich,
Who seem,
Not to care.

Christians going,
Off to war,
Killing those,
They have been,
Taught to hate.

The discovery,
That honesty,
Is of no value,
In a world,
Ruled by guile.

Old men shattered,
By the folly,
Of a remnant,
That no longer,
Makes any sense.

Driven back,
Upon themselves,
To face the fact,
That there are,
No answers.

Only questions,
A nagging realization,
That man must,
Learn the truth,
On his own.

Authors Bio:

Doug Soderstrom is a retired Professor of Psychology having taught for forty-two years at the college level. He was a columnist for the Populist Party of America (www.populistamerica.com/now discontinued) and has been a feature writer for www.iranian.com. His main interest at the present time is in writing poetry, and is in the process of gathering together somewhere around 700 poems that he has written over the past fifteen years, and will be publishing a book entitled "Loose Cannon Parables" if he can find a publisher willing to take on the job of publishing his book of poems.