walking around four times fortunate

love is important
but it’s self-serving

kindness is much more important
and more interesting;
that’s what saves the soul
on the bad days
that’s what eases the tension
always about

random, unexpected kindness
in the manner of
good looking grocery clerks smiling
at you for no reason,
dogs barking at each other
or carrying sticks in their jaws,
elderly women looking at you
in contempt
for carrying around a twelve-pack
at noon,
getting more green lights
than reds

and yes,
I know of dogs beaten
by their owners,
of faces behind the register
filled with death,
of beautiful girls who’ll never
look at you for any reason,
of getting all the reds
on the way to the corner store

but it’s with these sorts of things
that I seem to have
good fortune
more often than
bad