Speaking in Tongues

Can I forgive the youth in the park

who plucks out a rose for the laugh?

Well I never!

Can I forgive the mother who shouts at a child?

Well I never did!

Can I forgive a girl who leads-on a boy?

You don’t say!

Can I forgive a boy who leads-on a girl?

Shock, horror!

Can you forgive the surgeon who looks in the eyes

of the man in the bath with his burns

and the doctor, sighing, turns his head

not knowing the nurses had worked up some hope

and who turn on the man with a tongue-lash to re-kindle fire

into love, and then dress down the doc with their words?