Happy Birthday!

Cindy Jesse
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

A Modest Wish
For Cindy
dtrabue

A modest wish on this, your birthday; a modest wish for you
May your children rise up, call you bless’d; May your skies be ever blue

May your chocolate be healthy, your coffee, fairly traded
May your conservatives be compassionate (and in real-life, not exaggerated)

May you dance to the finest folk songs and get a visit from Bruce Cockburn
May you tie down every injustice, and never get a rope burn

May you have the strength of Mother Teresa, the wisdom of Gandhi
And yet still rock out, like Boston, Aerosmith or Blondie

May your sermons be insightful as Buber, as prophetic as Wink
And yet, may you prepare them in, oh, about a minute, I think

May your politicians be honest, and the corrupt ones repent
For every crime committed (especially, this president)

May the hungry be fed, the captives freed, all lies, overcome by Truth
This, my dear sister, is our modest birthday wish for you.