Kindness

The poem opens by speaking to the reader: “Before you know what kindness really is / you must lose things” (Lines 1-2). In this context, “you” refers both to the impersonal “someone” as well as creating an intimate connection with the reader—the microcosmic and the macrocosmic, the personal and the universal. Loss is a consistent thread throughout the poem, as the speaker escalates their imagery of what can be easily taken away in an instant. In the first stanza, the future can be lost as easily as “salt in a weakened broth” (Line 4). The image juxtaposes the domesticity of household life with the idea of a future crumbling beyond control to illustrate how easily such a moment can arise without warning.

The image crystallizes as the speaker compares it to something “counted and carefully saved” (Line 6), alluding to both spendable currency and years of life. The speaker suggests that all of this comfort and stability must disappear for one to truly grasp the depth of how life changing an act of kindness can be. The final lines in the first stanza show a group of bus riders moving ever forward, unable or unwilling to see the cruelties and tragedies around them.