A Prayer for the Twenty First Century

May the road be free for the journey
May it lead where it promised it would
May the stars that gave ancient bearings
Be seen, and still understood
May every aircraft fly safely
May every traveler be found
May sailors in crossing the oceans
Not hear the cries of the drowned.

May gardens be wild like jungles
May nature never be tamed
May dangers create us into heroes
May our fears always have names
May the mountains stand to remind us
Of what it means to be young
May we be outlived by our daughters
May we be outlived by our sons.

May the bombs rust away in their bunkers
And the doomsday clock not be rewound
May the solitary scientist working
Remember the holes in the ground
May the knife remain hidden in its holder
May the bullets stay in the gun
May those who live in the shadows
Be seen by those in the sun.

-John Marsden