If critics hunt for flaws in you,
Or friends prove false when you are true.

                        Forget it.

Don't work yourself into a heat
Because some others have "cold feet"
And criticise and storm^___Be sweet.

                        Forget it.

Let others tell what may not stand
The calmer thought with truth at hand.

                        Forget it.

You'll live the longer if you let
The "Nose-arounds" just stew and fret
Until the cold chills on them set.

                        Forget it.

For some are born with noses long
For scenting scandal, right or wrong.

                        Forget it.

Be kind, be sweet, nor 'bend the ear
To scandal, and you will not hear
The parrot-talk that starts the tear.

                        Forget it.

Turn not the leaf from yesterday,
The leaf that's soiled with what "They say."

                        Forget it.

For like a viper in a cage,
Will Malice, Hate and Envy rage,
While Love turns o'er a clean new page

                        And forgets it.

^__Ed Blair.