If I were worth what others think I am

If I were worth what others think I am,
if it were left up to their silly whim,
I'd be a crumpled paper in a can,

crushed to a little ball inside the hand
of one or of another lady prim.
If I were worth what others think I am,

I'd never truly know where I do stand,
inside, outside or balanced on the rim,
I'd be a crumpled paper in a can.

Today I'm worth parades and marching bands,
tomorrow my life would be torn from limb,
if I were worth what others think I am.

Yet there's a pattern flowing through that grand
and all-majestic viewpoint on the whim--
I'd be a crumpled paper in a can,

though I might first appear a promised land,
I'll always be a desert next to "him".
If I were worth what others think I am,
I'd be a crumpled paper in a can.

(C)2008, Christos Rigakos