Kindness In The Steam
Boiling Kindness
From Ashes to Clouds
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
~Oscar Wilde
The world used to be a cauldron
a vessel brimming with kind hearts
but now
it’s a dry pot on a high flame
Compassion boiled away like cheap whiskey
left us with bitter dregs
cracked and barren
Every act of kindness once bubbling
now vaporized
leaving just scorched steel
Neighbors used to share more than glances
their smiles exchanged in alleyways
now just invisible prints of forgotten melody
In the scalding heat of self-interest
every ounce of empathy evaporated
vanished into the ether
nowhere to be found
We’re left to scrape the bottom
hoping to find a drop, a trace
but the pot is empty
the well is dry
But I was wrong
I was proved wrong
Up above I looked
kindness consolidated with the clouds
hiding in the mist
blending with the sky
still there
though least in quantity
waiting to rain down in drops of mercy
to quench the parched hearts below
The world’s kindness isn’t gone
it’s transformed
a vapor dream
waiting for the storm to bring it back.
The vessel may be empty now
but the essence is in the air
mingling with the wind
a word of what once was
and what can be again
When it rains
it pours down on the Earth
love mingles with the downpour
reigniting the flickering fire in weary souls
drifting back in gentle sprinkles
softening even the hardest hearts.
Kindness
though scarce
still dances in the storm
“Kindness is not an act but a reflection of the divine within.”
~A. C. Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda
© Tamanna_Verma 2023
Suggested Readings from DEP:
Being Black in the Workplace | Isn’t it funny how after all this time nothing’s changed? | LIN
I Am a Woman | An Indian poem celebrating a normal female longing… | Rekha Philip
An Introduction | A poem on social interaction and being awkward | L. B.
✍ — Published by DR Rawson — The Possibilist at Dancing Elephants Press. Click here for submission guidelines.
