PraisesPeople have two faces.
Up front
they sing your praises,
they act even happier than you
when some good thing comes your way,
even by chance.
They spread it wide, and you
start to swell up like a toad.
Behind your back
you don’t know what they’re saying,
they cut you up with envy’s scissors
that can pierce through seven walls.
And grandma used to say:
“Don’t show anybody even where you shit,
for envy has more power
than bullets out of guns.”
Later it’s no use repeating incantations,
you can exorcise with the Cross held out in front
all that you want. There’s nothing you can do
against the force of words,
that lift you one day on a cloud of gold
and then the next day plunge you in the mud.