It Doesn't Pay At All To Assume Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

It doesn't pay to take away,
One's dignity to smear and smudge.
After judging to conclude...
One is in need,
To be taught a lesson or two.

It doesn't pay at all,
To misinterpret with shown attitude...
With a hoping to solicit others to convince,
What is heard through malicious gossip...
Has to be true or made to create that way.
Since that day will come to be shown,
To those of misdeeds to make it known...
Decades it will take them,
To reach the gutter from an evilness committed.
From depths so low they will come to believe,
For them this is an upward mobility.

Although for some,
It may take much longer than that...
To remove their trained smug looks...
Off their faked to smile faces.

It doesn't pay to take away,
One's dignity to smear and smudge.
After judging to conclude...
One is in need,
To be taught a lesson or two.
It doesn't pay at all,
To depict someone unknown to be a fool.
Especially if one who becomes depicted that way,
Is not only discovered to be a teacher.
But also one who knows,
How to go about administering a good lesson.
To the ones who have slipped,
Into pits of embarrassment and have wishes...
To be assisted from a curb they have climbed to sit,
Wanting more than anything to be forgiven...
For their self-inflicted ignorance.

It doesn't pay to perceive,
Another is not already familiar with humility.
Or how they got it to obtain to maintain it.
It doesn't pay at all,
To assume.