Very, Very Small

I am the inveterate misanthrope
who likens scrutiny of man?s condition
to peering backwards through a telescope

"Young man," they say, "your lens is incorrect."
Or else, "Have you prospects or ambition?
You will get nowhere with such disrespect."

But I?ve seen the process, start to finish
and cannot come around to their position
that my words should magnify, not diminish,

since by magnify they clearly mean aggrandize;
I will not esteem their black tradition,
gutting truth to sate the old and the wise

who teach us to choose our battles, while they
draw maps, plan for wars won through attrition,
and check the markets twenty times a day.