Goodnight Nurse

Nothing is more salutary than this:

The aid received from a complete stranger

Disease, decay and death stalk every bliss

No living being escapes all danger

But there are those who keep these threats at bay

From noble cloth are their fine souls woven;

To the afflicted, they say, softly, stay

By that alone is their goodness proven

Yet more they offer, inexhaustible:

Keeping safe the wretched and the helpless

Of cleaning bedpans are they capable

Without making their painters feel the less

How easily we do ignore the nurse

Even as she keeps us from the grim hearse!