All the things my neighbor tells me
Of other neighbors that he’s learned,
Makes me wonder if he spares me
then my back to him is turned.
A guy I work with loves to gossip
About another friend of ours;
Am I, then, in turn, his subject
When it comes to after-hours?
About my wife I even wonder ,
As high-heeled to her Club she goes:
When they rake their husbands over,
Does she tell em all she knows?
So help me, conscience, to remember,
If I gossip of a friend,
The guy to whom I’m talking gathers
I’ll talk about HIM in the end.
And anyway, I should remember:
“I was told”; “I heard”; “They say”–
Harm far more the chap who says them,
Than the subject, any day.
by Ray Romine Saturday, April 24, 1943
