by Naomi Shihab Nye
(written after she took a journey to Mexico)
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things.
feel the future dissolve in a moment
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 is a white poncho
lied 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 mail letters and purchase 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 every where
like a shadow or a friend.
