Your Word Is Your Honor

Mama and daddy taught me “Your word is your honor.
Always say what you mean and mean what you say.
Never use words derogatorily as a double-talk weapon
Or God will make you pay.”

I learned every thought, idea, or phrase coming from my mouth
Should be thought out beforehand with care.
By speaking from the heart instead of the head
No sorrowful wrongs and guilt would ever need repair.

I wasn’t the only one taught to honor language
Who lived by that beautiful famous creed.
Other folks I met were true to their word
By upholding righteous beliefs reflected in every deed.

Then as years passed, generations started to change
Cultures developed terrible sores of crime, abuse, and infamy.
Hate raped our wonderful generous language
And tainted our greatest democratic freedom

As even more time came and went
Language grew out of control
People used it in ways to bend the rules
Corrupting the value of honor with wickedness untold

Words became a weapon carved in graffiti and dishonor
Used to falsify the truth and bend the rules
To lie and cheat, gossip, and condemn,
To bend and defile our greatest tools:
The spoken and written language.

Now, time has washed away the shores
Of decency, honesty, virtue and respect,
I often feel I’m on another planet
Deteriorated through people’s greed and neglect.

I still set the example of what I was taught
By choosing my words with careful thought
Now, I know the contrasts that mark the devastation by people
From all  that God has wrought.

© 2007 Jeanette Cooper