Confession

The selfishness I see in you

Could well be, I surmise,

A fault that I'm discerning

Through a pair of selfish eyes.

You aren't kind and courteous

When things have gone askew;

And so I'm vexed to see myself

Reflected thus in you.

That tendency of yours to rail

About what others do

Annoys me for the reason that

I'm quite a gossip, too.

Your trait of taking lots of time

And dawdling in your work

Reminds me painfully that I 

Am one who's prone to shirk.

That fault you have of laughing

Loud at every silly joke

I criticize because I know

You're just my kind of folk.

You're not dishonest, goodness no!

But tricky in a deal.

And I'm annoyed -- for I'm like that

Sometimes, I've come to feel.

I note, my friend, you aren't frank

In speaking out your mind;

That irks me, too, for in myself

That very fault I find.

You're quite a boor, if I must say,

When friends have come to chat,

I'm speaking of it, I suppose

Because I'm much like that.

And so I guess the moral is:

The tings that I eschew

Are shabby things about myself

That I perceive in you!

Louis W. Larsen

(Copyright, 1940)