The Kindness of Others

By Cathy Song b. 1955 Cathy Song

The kindness of others

is all they ever wanted,

the laughter of neighbors

prospering in the blue light of summer.

Those of the small sputtering flame

and the sudden white sprung hair,

who feed off envy and grow old quickly,

desire largesse.

The role of poor relation

evokes a lack

they are not apt to admit,

or unbearable pity.

They prefer to penetrate the giver’s

effortless knack of giving

they perceive as vitality,

a pulsating entity

that rewards the kindness of others

tenfold.

This they have witnessed.

This they have tabulated relentlessly.

The generosity of others

whose spirits, like their long-legged

children blossoming into a progeny

of orchards and fields, flourish.

Those who have never known kindness

drag into the privacy of their smallness

the baskets of fruit

appearing year after year on their porches,

to be picked apart

in the hushed posture of thieves.

They peel skin, probe flesh

the color of honey

as if the seeds will yield something

other than a glimmer of sweet air

rising from the roots of trees

and licorice-laced, half-opened leaves.

Those of the small flame,

who feed off envy and grow old quickly,

live out their lives

hungry,

glaring at themselves across the table,

wife of the cruel mouth,

husband of the thin broth

trickling like spittle.

Cathy Song, “The Kindness of Others” from Poetry 186 (April 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Cathy Song. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: Poetry (Poetry Foundation, 2005)

Biography

Poet Cathy Song was born and raised in Hawaii and is of Korean and Chinese descent. Her work draws on her rich Korean-Chinese ancestry as well as her experiences as an American and a woman. In poems that have been compared by critics to the muted tints of watercolor paintings, Song has consistently created a world rich with narrative and imagery that transcends her own ethnic and regional background. Song herself resists . . .

Continue reading this biography