Confession time… I completely forgot today is the Third Thursday, so I have hastily gathered a poem to share with you all today.

Really, it’s a poem for me especially because I sure as hell could use a bit more kindness in my days. And of course, a poet must have had the same struggles… but they made sense of what I am missing. I am grateful to Danusha Laméris for gathering a small dose of kindness I can consume with my cup of coffee.

Thank you, Bonny for kindly gathering us all together this month. Stop by and inject your day with a slice of poetry!

Small Kindnesses

Danusha Laméris

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers will say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these b brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”

Small Kindnesses from Bonfire Opera. Copyright © 2020 by Danusha Laméris.

Happy Thursday, everyone. Stay warm and I will see you all back here on Monday!

Header photo by Jason Villanueva

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