Hypocrite – Written March 1995 (Aged 20)

Hypocrite

A girl,
with clothes far too tight —
so tight they sucked back her blood
and made her look ghostly white.

Well,
she said I was an attention seeker,
and she said it to my face,
with her clothes so figure-hugging
they made sure
they left all the curves in the right place.

Everyone knows she dresses to be noticed;
she, after all, needs the attention.

Then someone
who cried at anything,
who refuses to face their problems,
and, for attention,
creates problems out of thin air
when really they are not there —
they say I am unstable.

And then, someone with an attitude
gives me the wrong label.

Their opinions are probably not that wrong,
and most likely probably right,
but they really should take a look —
a closer look — at themselves just a bit,
and perhaps one word comes out:
hypocrite.

We all judge others
before we judge ourselves.
The trick is to amend the judgement
so that you get things right;
otherwise there is only one thing you can be,
only one word that fits:
hypocrite.

James Garratt – March 1995

More poems at
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/

More about this blog, The Boy Behind the Glasses, here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/2020/01/08/the-boy-behind-the-glasses-an-introduction/

More poems from 1995 here
https://theboybehindtheglasses.com/category/poems-and-writing-1995/