Costly Error

There’s cards for taking out money,
There’s cards for Esso and Shell,
There’s cards for the supermarket
And library books as well.
These cards fit into your wallet,
They’re no problem at all to the user,
But if you ever should mix them up
You might easily end up the loser.

A cousin of mine called Nathaniel
Once found he’d no money at all.
So he and his card betook themselves
Down to the hole in the wall.
He inserted his card without thinking
And waited to enter his pin,
But the machine just frowned and wanted to know
The type of a card he’d put in.


Nathaniel’s organ donor card
Was useless for taking out money,
And though Nathaniel initially smiled
The machine didn’t think it was funny.
It wouldn’t give up the card though he
Got down on his knees to beg.
And though he eventually got it back
It cost him an arm and a leg.