Time of Contrition

Today I saw the gossip pack
That scours our town from end to end
Like dogs in search of hidden scraps
Scavenge the virtue of a friend.

They fell on him with tooth and nail,
They made his worth a gamey dish
On which to glut their appetites
And grant in fact their horrid wish.

With mounting cries in this bad spell
They stripped my friend from flesh to bone,
But when they had destroyed his truth
They wept at what they had done.