The Kindness of Others

The Kindness of Others

The kindness of others is all they ever wanted, the laughter of neighbors prospering in the blue light of summer.

Those of the small sputtering flame and the sudden white sprung hair, who feed off envy and grow old quickly, desire largesse.

The role of poor relation evokes a lack they are not apt to admit, or unbearable pity.

They prefer to penetrate the giver’s effortless knack of giving they perceive as vitality, a pulsating entity

that rewards the kindness of others tenfold. This they have witnessed. This they have tabulated relentlessly.

The generosity of others whose spirits, like their long-legged children blossoming into a progeny of orchards and fields, flourish.

Those who have never known kindness drag into the privacy of their smallness the baskets of fruit appearing year after year on their porches.

CATHY SONG 39

to be picked apart in the hushed posture of thieves. They peel skin, probe flesh the color of honey

as if the seeds will yield something other than a glimmer of sweet air rising from the roots of trees and licorice-laced, half-opened leaves.

Those of the small flame, who feed offenvy and grow old quickly, live out their lives hungry,

glaring at themselves across the table, wife of the cruel mouth, husband of the thin broth trickling like spittle.

4 0 POETRY