A compliment falls flat
And becomes quite lame
When one turns it into
The comparison game.
When one says, “Your skill
Is quite amazing.
Now Jamie, look at her
You should do the same thing.”
When one says, “You’re well behaved.”
Then turn to their child, Drew,
And say, “Look at them,
And do what they do.”
And then Jamie or Drew
Protest and say,
“I am doing what they do,
Just in a different way.”
And then the parents go on,
Saying, “I know but…”
You want to escape, do something,
But you don’t know how or what.
So, you shift around
In your seat, in your chair
Look this way and that
Wishing you were never there.
Wishing the compliments had stopped
At “Your skill is amazing,”
“You’re well behaved,”
And had not been used for comparing.
Wishing that person
Had never said a thing,
Since the feel-good compliment
Contorts into a painful sting.
Wishing that person
Had not put you in the spotlight
Just so you would be burned
In the small heated argument in sight.
Wondering why a person
Would lift you up with words
Only to shoot you down, using you
As their child’s role model afterwards.
The blessing the person offered
Quickly becomes a curse
Which they are unaware of
Which they do not reverse.
The curse imprisons you,
Brands you with a name
As An Unwitting Pawn
In the Comparison Game.
No compliment is safe
In the comparison game
They all turn to insults,
Causing embarrassment and shame.
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