Simple Kindness - March 4 2023

 

Simple Kindness

March 4 2023

Take care, she said,

looking me earnestly in the eye

as we parted for the last time.

Said as if she meant it,

not tossed-off

like see ya or ciao.

Which was somewhat ironic,

since too much taking

was what I did best,

and my understanding of care

had been mostly zero sum;

pretty much all

spent on myself.

Like the careful, she said

looking down at me

a few steps below

with real worry in her voice,

backing a sofa down the stairs

grunting under the weight.

Back when we had little

but were very much in love.

And take your shit somewhere else,

when we had more

but were well enough out of it.

Shit, one of the few things

I didn’t take for myself.

Care

is such a expressive word,

and her tone made it clear

her concern was genuine.

So I tried to wish her the same

and part on good terms,

but all that came out

was a yeah, you too;

said flatly,

like a surly adolescent

just getting it over with.

Even the word itself

too hard for me to give.

Simple kindness

is all that's really required

to make a relationship work.

Like the woman

who always took better care of others

than she did of herself.

Who could have taught me a lot

if I’d only been willing to learn.