Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Watching the Regard

The regard of others—
that’s the superego, right?
But who bothers
to watch me?—If they had their druthers,
they'd watch dogs fight
for the regard of all the other
dogs—regard growing colder
by the minute, likely, keeping us awake at night.
Always a wretched bother:
to emit and to mention an odor
equally impolite;

yet the regard of others
is so important to me that I put on face powder
and fake a slight
limp.—What a bother!
I have to try to fool my own mother
by pretending to be someone that I ain’t.

Regard of others
worth no bother.