pride

sometimes i wonder whether or not pride is a good thing.
it makes people unnecessarily humble
and then it makes their head swell
and then modesty doesn’t appear for a while.

often though pride smiles
and lets people shine in their own right.

we need pride because without it
we would be all too modest
all too honest
all too brutal and unable to face reality.

pride lets us be ourselves
without losing our pictures of ourselves
as we think we should be.

it keeps us normal
to a fault, of course
because pride lets us be.