© 2020 Barbara Grace Lake

Do wishes ever, ever count
Those made in cheerful certainty
That one year’s sadly, dreary end
Can bring a new untarnished day

A day in which all children born
Are valued for potential lives
In which all men are given much
No difference as to race or kin

Do wishes mine, or any man’s
Count seeking for a future world
A lack of poverty, disease
A lack of greed, aggression, war

My world of peaceful comity
Has not in aeons yet evolved
So do our wishes, even prayers
Reach only chaos deadened ears

Please God, indeed if there be one
Infuse each born as meant to be
With recognition of each man’s
Innate, mandated right to live