Mark My Words and Scratch the Dirt

A saying is a tool, a gate,
Something to redirect the flow,
Something with which to irrigate

The part of the conversation
You want to get the benefit
Of a more sustained attention—

And sometimes you use the tool well,
And sometimes it’s decorative,
Something that you pull out to tell

An interlocutor, look here,
What a satisfying saying
This is, well made, handsome to hear,

Pithy, multipurpose, but curt.
You mark my words and scratch the dirt.