A Tale, Bearing Word

I met a man the other day
Bound up with a snare.
"Have you heard," he began to say,
"What I have to share?"

His head was turned away from me;
Hidden from the light.
His voice was hushed and seemed to be
Cracking with delight.

I thought to set the poor man free
From the biting snare.
But he just turned and looked at me
As if it wasn't there.

In his face as he turned around,
I found how it'd begun.
His mouth revealed how he was bound
with a gossip's tongue.

Gary L. Stephens