If I revisit
the childhood conversation
about wishes granted,
here’s what I’ve decided I’d request:

Not things I could predict,
but freshness in my days —
yes, I’d ask to be amazed,
to have my sense of everything
frequently upended,
but with the caveat
that everything be good.

It’s not too much to ask,
since good is, after all,
the one enduring fact,
the essence from which
each entity unfolds,
to which it ever yearns

Good is the kernel
of every sorry effort
and every noble gesture.
Good, on further thought,
doesn’t even need wishes.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 26, 2016