Kindness Is a Kind of Metabolism

How we live within our times,
Largely forgiving of those
Who are close to us, largely

Unforgiving of others
Who are mostly imagined,
Given they’re farther away—

Little clouds of thoughts inside
Small orbits of behavior—
Few of us more than manage

More or less acceptable
Lives within our small contexts.
Lots of people have observed

How life is like a bubble,
Just a bubble, a bubble
Of awareness—it’s also

A sphere of ethical sense,
An enclosed parameter,
Sometimes many such bubbles,

Articulating outsides
Relative to our insides,
Like living cells, like our cells.