New Year’s Resolutions

From The Seattle Star, January 1, 1913.
 By Berton Braley.
 

 We won’t be too ambitious in a resoluting way,
     We’ll plan on very little of the new deal stuff.
 For neither Rome nor Athens was completed in a day
     And reforming’s not accomplished by a great big bluff.
 We’re going to take it gently and by stages and degrees;
     Our goodness will not raise us to a higher sphere.
 But we’ll try to show improvement in our actions, if you please,
     And be a LITTLE better than we were last year!
 

 We shan’t upset the country by our thoughtfulness and care,
     We’ll go on being selfish to a large extent.
 But may be there’ll be troubles we can kind of help to share,
     And maybe we’ll be gentler in our temperament;
 We shall not have a halo for the charity we do
     (A mortal with a halo would be mighty queer)
 But we’ll moderate our tempers—(can we count a bit on you?)
     And we’ll be a LITTLE kinder than we were last year!
 

 We won’t be too ambitious in the matter of reform,
     But we’ll be a little better if we find we can.
 And where the market’s crowded and the game is getting warm
     We’ll be a little nicer to our fellow man.
 We shan’t be shining angels and we wouldn’t if we could,
     We only hope for progress and we start right here.
 We want to be—not perfect, or even “goody good!”—
     But Better Human Beings than we were last year!