Peter, you have words, cordial and trustful
While, in adverse times, folks sleep in peace
and dream of good times to come
You keep awake, devising ways to
protect the honest, and the simple
from adversity
Your searching eyes seek the mute
the pain of wars entombed in memorials
and museums: human civilization
In times when man is out to gobble everything
in sight, you eat little and drink less
Untouched by greed, rich in sensitivity
you stand with friends, often against yourself
Opening bottles of wine with enviable expertise
your joy is in watching others enjoy
Familiar with the crookedness of the genteel
you hold on to a moral code of your very own
Peter, you are a friend of the soul
in a world where friends become strangers
at the drop of a hat
