justfungossiping (Gossip ** )

Boys flying kites haul in their white-winged birds;
   You can call back your kites, but you can’t call back your words:
‘Careful with fire’ is good advice, we know,
   ‘Careful with words’ is ten times doubly so;
Thoughts unexpressed will often fall back dead,
   But God himself can’t stop them once they are said.

— Penned by Will Carleton, ‘The First Settlers’ Story’