Treat The New Day

Do not, I beg of you, insult the morning hour by talking of your backache.
There are other and more important things to talk about.

Do not contaminate a day as yet unsmirched by complaint
that you did not rest well last night, and that,
in consequence, you have a headache.
Your head will ache the harder for your telling it.

Do not blaspheme by snarling over your coffee
about the price of coal, or
the argument you had yesterday
with a man who proved himself less than a gentleman.

Treat the new day as becomes a gentleman,
and the rewards of the hour shall be yours.