Secret Adages
“Write nothing down in ink” is the secret’s first rule;
“You promise not to tell?” said the secret’s first fool.
A secret’s likely safe if entrusted to a stranger;
one who knows no English will further lessen danger.
Secrets may be sweet, too delicious not to share.
To savor them together might double tempting fare.
Don’t hide a guilty secret no other person knows;
like mold behind a ceiling, a spreading fester shows.
Revealing every secret, a link to each regret,
will drain away a soul to an empty fishing net.
“Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.”
(But more about the bodies, Ben Franklin never said.)
by Barbara Lydecker Crane
Editor’s Note: This clever poem uses rhyme and meter to effortlessly lull the reader with amusing advice right up until the killer last line.
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