“Forgetting Distractions”

‘The only care
That I shall share
Shall be the care of others,
And on the road
I’ll halve the load
Of overburdened brothers.
I rather guess
It’s selfishness
That drives me to such actions,
For in this plan
I find I can
Forget my own distractions.’
~John Kendrick Bangs (1862-1922), “A Useful Whim” (October Eighteenth), The Cheery Way: A Bit of Verse For Every Day, 1920