COME, LISTEN
When I was very small my dad said to me,
“Listen to your conscience so good always be.”
But sometimes I heard two voices, good and bad,
I could not understand, so I went and told my dad.

“Come listen, child, carefully to what I have to say,
The bad voice you can always face and turn away,
The good will want to settle in your heart and rest,
Then you will know which voice is the very best..”

One voice, ‘Go tell Olwyn she looks silly in green,’
The other, ‘Tell her she’s the best friend that ever been,’
I soon learned which voice was good and right
And tried always to listen well and never fight.

Yet sometimes I fell short of dad’s good advice
The wrong voice won and I wasn’t at all nice,
Usually because they’d been mean and cruel to me,
I just wanted to go and get my own back, you see.

“Come listen, child, while I tell you what you should do
When someone is cruel and hurts you right through,
Be nice to them in every way and every time you can,
It will show by far you are a better person, a noble man.”

Although I was a girl I understood what he meant
And to be good was from then on my real intent,
Not to say I’m better but to show the better way
Try to be worthy of a father who I honour and obey.

(Millicent) Ann Margetson June 2, 2002