DECISION REVERSED

When I mixed with the shoppers and fought in vain

To get what I sought, in the Christmas rush;

When they stood on my toes in the crowded train,

Or dented my ribs in the sidewalk crush,

I dropped my manners and snarled and swore,

And thought: “It's a bothersome, beastly bore!”

But when, at the Christmas dawn, they brought

My kid to the room where his things were piled,

And when, from my vantage point, I caught

The look on his face, I murmured: “Child,

Your dad was a fool when he snarled and swore,

And called it a bothersome, beastly bore.”