Self-absorption

A villanelle

Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash

“Self-absorption isn’t self-awareness,”
A much, much wiser man once said to me.
I needed to hear that, in all fairness.

“If all your many troubles and their rareness
Consume your thoughts, then you are all you see.
That’s self-absorption, it’s not self-awareness.”

“Don’t make it about you,” he said in spareness.
I didn’t like to hear it; I got angry.
But I needed to hear that, in all fairness.

What if my perception of unfairness
Was just my wounded pride to great degree?
Was self-absorption and not self-awareness?

The more I thought, the more the brazen bareness
Of deep self-pity was exposed to me,
And I needed to see that, in all fairness.

The ego, seen in all its ugly glareness,
Is hideous; best not to set it free.
Self-absorption isn’t self-awareness;
I need to hear that often, in all fairness.