remember the random acts

you will remember the random acts

of kindness

that have brushed your way,

when your way begins to wind down,

when the body begins to give up,

when exhaustion kicks in---

you will remember the random acts &

wonder why you didn’t do the same---

you’ll remember all the times that you

questioned your own motivations &

went the other way---

you’ll remember that you worried about this

or the other & then

turned away---

you’ll remember that there had been humans

that did more for you

than you have ever done for them &

you will remember that you’d been influenced

by reasons that all added up to

nothing.

 

it is the kindness that comes without a tag,

it is the kindness that comes without the attempt at

getting a gold star from someone, from something,

from somewhere,

it is Blanche’s

“kindness of strangers,”

which will be remembered

when you lay there on the deathbed---

no, it won’t be the relatives who

long for something after,

be it material, be it an end to the emotional weight that

you seem to have brought them,

be it the look in their faces that spin a thousand

lies,

which do not come with malice but a want to stop

the inevitable---

all that is instant

all that is permanence

coming in slow motion,

all this is expected &

it will not cloud the moments that another human cared for

you,

only for the sake of

doing so.