“Interest of Conflicts”

Ignorance is bliss,

But knowledge? Now that’s  power.

And we’re taught to never throw a rock;

Lest it be from ivory towers.

An eye’s considered payment,

For another's plucked out eye.

However, “thou had best not kill”;

Is a law we’d best live by.

While we’d never judge a novel,

By the cover that it wears;

Still, we terrify our children, with

“That’s a strange person. Beware.”

When we hasten we make waste,

But he who hesitates is lost,

And while a silent man is sagely;

One without words has no thoughts.

Beginners are thought lucky,

Although practice makes just right.

As for fools? They seldom differ;

But great minds? They think alike.

We look before we leap,

Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And we’re always told to do our best;

Though, perfection can’t be attained.

Two heads, I’ve always heard it said,

Are far more better than just one,

But to make sure that the job is right,

You alone should get it done.

The fields, they're are always greener,

If they’re ones we’ve never plowed,

But good fences make good neighbors,

Please, no trespassers allowed.

Also, please don’t slice your nose off,

In a spiteful hissy-fit;

Because, twenty-thousand surgeons,

Make their living out of it.

               

To give until it hurts,

Is far more better than to get,

Unless “Trigger” gives you something,

Then you’d best not refuse it.

The weak, it has been said,

possess the keys to heaven’s door,

But onward Christian soldiers,

continue marching off to war.

I know that all these lessons,

Are meant to clear and not confound;

But, it seems to me, we’d better shed more light
on all the sayings we pass down.

And, as a whole, be careful,

With which adages we choose;

Lest the generations years from now all end up quite confused.

By Graham E. Saturley