God Knows I Try

Nighttime is inventory

The day's tally of those in my wake

The hopeless and helpless and those who seem not so

But need the hope and the help and possibly me

Slights delivered and blows received

Weave the silk of indiscretion in those I've engaged

The pained and frightened and those who are not

But need relief and succor and maybe me

I hold court nightly on how much I helped

Or hindered or got comfort or otherwise denied it

To those with nothing or those with plenty

Who still needed, yet, probably me

'Sbeen said, "Made in His image and likeness," so

When I think of the accounting I make at night

The arithmetic of the web woven with all my world's spiders

I keep score and own the plusses and minuses

Not what's befallen me or's been suffered from me

Or the wins and losses of seesaw oneupmanship

No, I count the successes in spite of myself

To remain in that image and likeness