RECONSIDERING THE SEVEN
Deadly Sins? Please — let's replace Pride
with Modesty, especially when it's false.
And thank goodness for Lust, without it
I wouldn't be here. Would you?
Envy, Greed — why not? If they lead us
to better ourselves, to Ambition.
And Gluttony, like a healthy belch, is a guest's
best response to being served a good meal.
I'll take Sloth over those busybodies
who can't sit still, watch a sunset
without yammering, or snapping a picture.
Now that makes me Wrathful.
— Peter Pereira
from What's Written on the Body. © Copper Canyon Press, 2007.
I would live all my life
in nonchalance and insouciance,
Were it not for making a living,
which is rather a nouciance.
~ Ogden Nash
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