The Man With The Magnifying Glass

That man there, with the magnifying glass,

why he held that magnifying glass

up against me.

Said I looked fat,   and lazy.

And I, being the timid girl that I am,

hung my head and cried and spoke not a word in defiance.

He followed me around, that man,

made sure I didn’t escape his investigation.

He said to me, “you’re weak, a pushover -

you come from bad breeding.

You know nothing about life, or how to

find REAL success in the world.

You try to achieve great things in vain,

because you are weak, untalented, and plain.

You lack common sense, the common sense a person

needs to get ahead in this world. 

You’re going nowhere fast, but it’s not all your fault.

You come from bad breeding.”

All these things he said to me.

I shrunk lower and lower

with every blow.

I asked myself, who is this man, that loathes me so?

What did I do to deserve such close scrutiny?

It was at that moment that I remembered what my father

taught me long ago.

That the man with the magnifying glass will showcase

everyone else’s faults to hide his own.

He will bring others down in despair,

to lift himself up.

And I looked at that man, and I saw him for what he really was.

A man not proud of who he was, who felt that life had dealt him unfairly,

who felt like a failure for not making his mark on the world.

And I feel sorry for him that he won’t own up to his own weaknesses

and make them his strengths.