A Morning Prayer

Let me today do something that will take
A little sadness from the world's vast store
And may I be so favored as to make
Of joy's too-scanty sum a little more.

Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend.
Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,
Or sin by silence when I should defend.

However meager by my worldly wealth,
Let me give something that shall aid my kind--
A word of courage, or a thought of health,
Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.

Let me tonight look back across the span
'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience--
Because of some good act to beast or man--
"The world is better that I lived today."

--Paul P. Bova