A New Poem

How To Be Kind

"Bless you" to the sneezing stranger in the Dollar Store

Giving my cart to the woman at Aldi's searching for change between her car cushions

Having a long phone conversation with someone's grandmother who dialed the wrong number

"You have a beautiful smile" to the radiologist giving me a mammogram

Chicken soup in a glass tomato sauce jar for the neighbors down the street

During Covid, laughing with a stranger in the grocery store hair product aisle. I had just cut my own bangs and she hadn't had a hair cut in four months.

Spending twenty minutes capturing the lizard in my living room and putting him back on the porch

Putting birdseed in the feeder even though the squirrels will eat most of it

Kissing my crepey arm every night and saying "I love you."