Sympathy

Not knowing
is the least of our issues
if you're just drying tears
with tissues.

There are people worse off
than we,
yet you walk around
wanting sympathy.

Why is it
you must be a martyr?
Children out there starving,
are better than you
and ten times smarter.

Don't walk around looking for empathy.
You'll get knocked to the ground,
knocked off your feet.
Now, as you get up, look around.

Does the man on the corner
begging for change,
Deserve what he gets,
as he watches his life circle the drain?

Does the woman with the child
deserve what she gets,
as she shivers and freezes,
on that stoop where she sits?

Don't ask sympathy from me,
when you're problems are nonexistent.
Just look at the misfortune around you
through their eyes which are so distant...

Better view now?
It's not you who has it bad.
After all you're here, inside,
and you've ever reason to be glad.