Rules of Thumb
I try to do unto others
as I would have them do unto me,
though I find this awfully hard at times,
especially when those others
have already done unto me
that which I would never have done unto them,
in which case I might be sorely tempted
to do unto them
that which they did unto me, since after all,
they did it first.
If I don’t have anything good to say
I try very hard to say nothing at all,
but a word or two do slip out now and then,
which tends to get back
to the person I had nothing good to say about
but spoke of anyway,
at which point that person often has a word or two
to say right back,
none of it very good, to be perfectly honest,
and then we have ourselves a conversation.
I like to say Bless your heart,
and I do mean it with all my heart,
but in my heart of hearts I mean it in different ways,
depending,
since as we all know, the heart wants what it wants
and sometimes it has no clue what it wants
but it sure does want it, at least mine does,
and sometimes what it wants
is to bless your heart, other times not to bless it,
not to bless it one blessèd bit.
8 thoughts on "Rules of Thumb"
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Love the way the tone and language change in the last stanza, with all those wants and blesses.
Truth! I love the pacing of this, it’s so slow and welcoming and then there’s a boom at the end.
I enjoyed how you provided commutations of these proverbs, allowing the reader to look at them in new ways
Love this! Love the choice of words, the cadence, the feel.
Very well done!
love how your poem is one long qualification. love the ending, too
Love how you play with words/phrases/cliches, and how that play gets progressively less tolerant! I laughed at the last line – it’s a gem!! Really enjoyed this poem!
nice title