Think Three Times - edit

[Tiger the Lion]

Think Three Times


Please do not ever think
that if you abuse and victimize
men who look like the men
who once victimized and abused
men who looked like you
that this worm will turn only once
that righteous wrath is yours alone
that downtrodden people
never will rise up and take revenge
when it’s you that did the treading.
Please do not ever think
you can’t be better
only just as bad –
because the wheel of justice
will not stop
with you on top.

Just wanted to touch briefly on lines 6,7,8. I'm almost always a fan of repetition applied with intent. It works well here except that you're also trying to use as little punctuation as possible. If you had used zero punctuation throughout I would say leave it as is. In context, both "once" and "alone" seem to require a following comma, em dash, or spacing of some sort to avoid ambiguity. I think a combination of all of them would least disturb the original momentum of the thing...

Please do not ever think
that if you abuse and victimize
men who look like the men
who once victimized and abused
men who looked like you
that this worm will turn only once --
that righteous wrath is yours alone

that downtrodden people
never will rise up and take revenge
when it’s you that did the treading.
Please do not ever think
you can’t be better
only just as bad –
because the wheel of justice
will not stop
with you on top.

Edit: Great title, btw.