THIS KIND KINDNESS

gifted

always attractive

though never truly pretty

she squandered

in desperate need

her gifts of youth

and brilliance

for the security of love

and the reality of home

in the arms of a man

who could never

match her gift

bitter hard strength

walks gallant and tense

with her now

caught twenty years later

in the same place

yet perhaps

there is new wisdom

not only rock

in her hardness

and perhaps life

will be kinder

this time