Too many memories danced in her head,
Too many ghost that wouldn't stay dead,
And this hurt on her heart, it would not relent,
So into the forest at midnight she went,
A decision was made, she could not keep caring,
This much of her soul, she could not keep sharing,
And there in the night, dark trees say her crying,
So exhausted now, from long years of trying,
Her spirit was tired, the emotions all sore,
She just didn't care much for the world anymore,
And cold moon looked things than misunderstood,
So she pleaded with pain, then to stars up above,
She dug deep in the ground, and she buried her love,
She struggled to stand, no strength left to shout,
She trembled a bit when she finally cried out,
"Now I must mend, only now can I heal,
Since I've put earth atop all the things that I feel!"
R. Queen
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
Kindness
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Sometimes, rarely,
someone is moonlight over
the dark waters of your soul.
And as every trembling fear and doubt
is kissed with a kind of silver love,
you can only feel gratitude at being found
even just for a moment.
R. Queen
Darkchylde: The Ariel Chylde Saga