Kindness *

Pain inflicted days grow in frequency
And the intensity of the burn increases
Driving me to my knees.

But we are all in pain.
The degree of pain is relative
To the sufferer.

Pain has been a cruel companion
But a wonderful schoolmaster.
I have learned kindness from pain.

Kindness
Impacts both the giver and getter.
It’s worth more than the medications I take
If I will simply listen to another’s pain story.

Kindness
Extends the hand of God to the sufferer
Soothes the burn
Eases the ache.

Kindness
Encourages those yearning for relief
To endure one more hour
One more day.

Kindness
Is not trumping the pain of another
Just to demonstrate I am in greater pain
Or have suffered longer.

Kindness
May mean saying nothing of my own pain
But allowing another to bleed
Into the bandage of my concern.

Kindness
Is love with shoes on
Willing to go where the pain is great
Though I carry my own burden.

Kindness
Is later returned to me
In unexpected ways
And in great degree
From hands pained with the print
Of nail scars.

*(This message is greater than the vehicle that bears it. We are all in pain. If not the flesh, it's the spirit that cries for relief. I am encouraged that, in the Revelation of St. John, he writes there is no longer any pain in the new heaven, the new earth, or the new Jerusalem. I'm very ready to go. I hope you are as well.)

Swallowed*

I look into the mirror
To gaze at my own face
And behold within a sadness
That seems devoid of grace.

Here in that aging visage
There appears to me
An aching haunt most awful
In mine own eyes to see.

I wonder whether others
Who look into my eyes
See in them what I do
And are taken by surprise.

If you ask me I may tell you
The reason for the pain
But it’s better to be quiet
As the hush that follows rain.

Let come what ‘ere may come
And let be what ‘ere may be
Let blindness overtake me
By these eyes too dull to see.

Years will come as swelling tide
And I will lay me down in sorrow
But look no longer in my face
When I am swallowed by the morrow.

*(Some poems insist on being penned in Victorian English)

Sheer Stupidity*

He might have had a knife.
He might have had a gun.
He could have opened my belly
To the flashing morning sun.

But I stood my ground
And stared him in the eye
And never let it move me
That I was about to die.

The rage I kept in check
Surged within my heart
And I knew the fight was on
And this was the place to start.

I had him by ten pounds
But he clearly had the trigger
And the way that this could go
Was not too difficult to figure.

In for a dime, in for a dollar
So I decided to up the ante
And I told him I'd rip his guts out
And stuff them down his panty.

That clearly jacked him up.
He turned red and began to sputter.
I realized this may work out
If I could reduce this guy to butter.

He said I better watch my back
‘Cuz he was one dangerous dude.
So I told him that was impolite
And he was downright rude.

I offered my home address
Encouraged him to write it down
And said something about his mother
Then called him a goofy clown.

That’s when the amazing happened.
He turned and walked away.
I played poker and won
And lived to fight another day.

But in terms of sheer stupidity
This was the dumbest thing I’d done.
Just because you walk away
Doesn’t mean you’ve really won.

*(Yeah. True story. My stupidity is boundless)

The Rain and the Pain

A slow rain fell.

The cool liquid’s
Dampening brace
Worked into me
As do memories of you.

Those memories
Hurt.

A friend asked
That weary question:
Isn’t it better to have loved and lost
Than never to have
Loved at all?

I lied.
I told him it was.

But damn, Girl
The pain is still so raw
It stuns me.

Even the simplest memory
Sends tears
Down my cheeks.

I drifted into the rain
The way a discarded sales bill
Somersaults the curb.

Lifting my face
I let the tears roll.
Nobody watching cared.
I was just an old fool
Without sense to come out of the rain.

But time, place and person are irrelevant.
Pain leaks into the heart’s crevices
Seeking an exposed nerve
Like rain works between brick and mortar
Breaking the two apart.

It’s unavoidable.
Let the rain and the pain come.
Let the memories roll.
They are my only connection to you.