lens

Long labored hours of heavy work deceive
The heart to rate all gained as earned
and fairly due: so much as we receive,
That much we take as our true worth discerned.

Or higher: for when return is meager,
Expectation is not meager but bold
To think its own work stole, and strikes eager
To block all implications loss may hold.

But let others lose, and implication
Leaps to see their loss as fair consequence,
Made vivid by that same expectation:
Our gain seems earned; their loss but common sense.

Each man’s sweat beads into a selfish lens
Reflecting worth on self, and on others, sins.