My Daddy used to wallop me for every small offense: <br />"Its takes a hair-brush back," said he, "to teach kids common-sense." <br />And still to-day I scarce can look a hair-brush in the face. <br />Without I want in sympathy to pat a tender place. <br />For Dad declared with unction: "Spare the brush and spoil the brat." <br />The dear old man! What e'er his faults he never did do that; <br />And though a score of years have gone since he departed hence, <br />I still revere his deity, The God of Common-sense. <br /> <br />How often I have played the ass (Man's universal fate), <br />Yet always I have saved myself before it was too late; <br />How often tangled with a dame - you know how these things are, <br />Yet always had the gumption not to carry on too far; <br />Remembering that fancy skirts, however high they go, <br />Are not to be stacked up against a bunch of hard-earned dough; <br />And sentiment has little weight compared with pounds and pence, <br />According to the gospel of the God of Common-sense. <br /> <br />Oh blessing on that old hair-brush my Daddy used to whack <br />With such benign precision on the basement of my back. <br />Oh blessings on his wisdom, saying: "Son, don't play the fool, <br />Let prudence be your counselor and reason be your rule. <br />Don't get romantic notions, always act with judgment calm, <br />Poetical emotions ain't in practice worth a damn/ <br />let solid comfort be your goal, self-interest your guide. . . ." <br />Then just as if to emphasize, whack! whack! the brush he plied. <br />And so I often wonder if my luck is Providence, <br />or just my humble tribute to the God of Common-sense.<br /><br />Robert William Service<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-god-of-common-sense/
