Brother’s Keeper

A trillion things I’ve seen and done,
a billion battles I’ve lost and won
as I navigate my way through this life
full of the triumphs, laughter, and strife
that mark the passage of my days.
I just mosey along, work and play
following the inscrutable plan
encoded in my DNA - it's who I am.

I smile on some folks like a rosy dawn
and treat others like chessboard pawns.
Tell me, what has it all been for?
Is some Celestial Being keeping score?
Should I decide to travel a certain way
how would that affect another’s day?

A would-be robber becomes a better man
because I chose to sit instead of stand,
placing my tempting wallet out of reach
of his not yet actively criminal hand?
What about you, my gloomy friend;
have you thought this through to the end?

Because you laughed instead of sighed,
a woman lives who would have died.
Had her husband not paused to see
what was causing your infectious glee,
he’d have found her embracing her brother
and angrily mistook him for her lover.
Instead, they’re living ‘happily ever after’
simply because of your sunny laughter.
And you, now downhearted and blue,
never had a single clue.