This lady in the subway said:
“Don’t look a person in the face—
It’s just not nice to stare instead
Of minding your own business!
“My mother taught me long ago:
It isn’t nice for you to stare!
When I was old enough to know
She made me of that be aware;”
(She’d seen that I was listening)
“See him looking the other way—
His mother must’ve had a thing
About this subject I would say.”
“What our mothers told us when
We all were five, was very true;
Important now—as it was then—
By saying what we ought to do.”
“You see how he agrees with me!”
To her companion as she cries,
“That’s how it was as well with me:
My mother never told me lies!”
I skipped the part about how we
Forget the kindergarten mores
Unlearning what ought not to be
So as to pick up what is worse,
Since after all, one needn’t say
The truth if it’s hurtful to hear,
But rather keep things in a way
We want them nicely to appear:
And truth to tell, this lesson is
Best kept through its sincerity:
No matter how things go amiss
Stick to the way it ought to be.
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