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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THINK TWICE by WALT MASON

First Line: THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU MAIL THE NOTE IN
Last Line: BRING THE CERTAIN PENALTY, REMORSE!
Subject(s): REMORSE;

THINK twice before you mail the note in which you give your anger vent, in which

you recklessly devote yourself to skinning some poor gent. For doubtless when
your anger cools, you'll kick your spine up through your hat, and say, "I was
the prince of fools to send a man such rot as that!" Think twice before you pass

along the scandal that you heard last night; you may do some good man a wrong
that years of effort can't set right. And though the story true may seem, why
rob a neighbor of his goat? From your own eye remove the beam, before you reach

for t'other's mote. Think twice before you jaw your wife; there was a time, some

years ago, when you declared you'd make her life as cheerful as a picture show.

Alas, she took you at your word, as damsels do, and always did; and all her
married years she's heard her husband yawping through his lid. Think twice
before you do a thing your soul refuses to indorse; for every wicked act will
bring the certain penalty, remorse!



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