Rule of Thumb 

The lesson giver, 

exasperated,

insisted we heed

the narrow way trailing

what we already learned

the hard way,

the loser’s way,

the only way 

is

there’s six billion sides

to every way

and twelve billion eyeballs

rolling.

 * * * *

I suppose

there’s an exception

to every rule

because every rule

was once an exception.

“Hey!” the furry one said,

“we don’t have to kill them”

hence,

‘Thou shalt not kill’

with exceptions of course.