477 and 478

I heard it from my grandfather! I heard

it from my teacher, or by tutelage!

No matter where you heard the wily word,

a truth unknown to Truth is sacrilege.

For try the trail to that tall Mountaintop

that is what is reliable advice.

Take words from friends who would your childhood prop,

but tell us that you yourself paid the price.

The word, if true, will stand before the bar

when all your faults and mine will be revealed.

To say that you have tried a word goes far,

but not if only others’ words you wield.

A sin is nothing if it’s tried on sense,

but trusting man gives sin no recompense.

~~~

Apple Cottage (the pet store) iii:

Her gaze fell on the goldfish, Jefferson

(whose bowtie was of blue, with yellow dots),

whose friend Onesimus (the crab) harked on,

as the oratious fish dictated thoughts:

“Dear readers of the Mariana Trench,”

he spoke, while Onesimus wrote the words

with, within one great claw, a pen a-clench,

while out the window, waiting, were newsbirds.

“—My column must now come to a short end,”

the goldfish suddenned, seeing Winnifred.

“Until next week, when I will reappend

this article that is, here, cut off, dead.”

For Jefferson knew, well, her stricken look

was not to be ignored, shunned, or mistook.