Be Careful with Your Own
If I had known, in the morning,
How wearily all the day
The words unkind would trouble my mind
I spoke when you went away,
I had been more careful, darling,
Nor given you needless pain;
But—we vex our own with look and tone
We might never take back again.
For though in the quiet evening,
You may give me the kiss of peace,
Yet it well might be that never for me
The pain of the heart should cease!
How many go forth at morning
Who never come home at night;
And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken
That sorrow can ne’er set right.
We have careful thought for the stranger,
And smiles for the sometime guest,
But oft for our own the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best.
Ah, lip with the curve impatient,
Ah, brow with the shade of scorn,
‘Twere a cruel fate were the night too late
To undo the work of the mom.
—Anon.
Alternate Reading: Proverbs 17: 1-10.