Your Friendly Neighborhood Cynics

Those who regard the world with scorn

Ignoring the roses in favor of thorns

So quick to judge that they never learn

To truly discriminate or discern

When real sincerity is on display…

There are no yeas, only endless nays.

Simple altruism is instantly rejected

While selfishness is always expected.

Their delight seems to be to smother

The joy and freedom felt by others.

Everything is, to their jaded view,

Corrupt and tawdry and far from new.

Never expect to hear them cheer

Their modus operandi is to jeer

In a tireless effort to make us see

That selflessness can never be.

A little skepticism is good for us all,

But, taken too far, it quickly palls.

I think we’d very much prefer to see

The basic decency in you – and in me.

© 5/30/2005 Thurman P. Woodfork