Obadiah Bell

I am fit and I am well (so said Obadiah Bell.) I take life as it come from day to day, I have never been a scorner Of the 'trouble round the corner,' For it may be lurking half a life away. No false vision ere bewitches Me with dreams of fame or riches,So I'm fairly well content and free of strife. With my job and friends and my garden and my fowls, and my club and my bowls and my pipe and my books and my dog and my family and my wife. And, since I seek the safer things in life, Most especially my family and wife. On occasion, vagrant fears stir me with the passing years, A sudden qualm, a flash of half-felt fright; But I know my limitations As a savior of nations: And who am I to put the world aright. So, when qualms like these assail me, What I find may never fail me As, contented as I may, tho' life I jog, Are my job and friends and my fowls and my club and my bowls and my pipe and my family and my wife and my books and my garden and my dog, And, when I'd dissipate some mental fog, Most especially my garden and my dog. For a man can tell tell (so said Obadiah Bell.) When what he has may one day disappear: So I thank what gods there be That all they gave to me Has stayed with me for yet another year. And I do such as I can To assist my fellow man And wish him blessed as I am with my lot With my family and my wife, and my job and my bowls and my pipe and my dog and my club and my friends and my little garden plot; And, when I think of all the joy I've got, Most especially my friends, and which is not?