Happy 2019

And so to begin again
           yearly and dearly
I shall marshal my resources
           and keep faith with the first duty
which is to defend the small truths
           against those woeful follies and fantasies
that would corrode and eat away
           the body politic

The daily bric-a-brac I shall
           leave behind me
and grieve not one iota
           over the ashes of it
so long as I walk the face
           of this fertile earth

I shall be the flesh and bone
           of my better self
and simply dare to do and be
           and love where love wills life
and wed my good blood
           to all that is deserving of me

John Lyons