Compound Self Interest

When I was a child my helpers
(who were always bigger than me)
hid how they helped themselves
much more than they were helping me.

It took a long time after their help ended
for me to see that I was no better off,
than if they had abandoned me earlier.
It was a relief, and cause for grief,
for me recognise that their gain was my loss
when it wasoall over, and I was on my own.

When I experienced this compound self interest
I saw them as the poor trying to make being poor
better for the people around them, as if poverrty
was all their was to be had and it was best shared
to make it seem like a generosity made to be extended.

How poor do the poor have to be to choose
to not see other people as sheep fit to be fleeced?
All I know is that I should be to write selflessly.
For as much such as I write, what I hope that I lack
that sort of self that compounds it's own self interest.