Kindness is all

Kindness is an urn: empty it
With barbs of disbelief.
It would still, flow.

Kindness is a patch of green: tight as fist
Plough it, walk on it.
It would still, grow.

Kindness is a door: with cracks and hinges
Bang it, bolt it.
It would still, welcome.

Kindness is a fruit: not so ripe and ready to eat
Peel it, pulp it.
It would still, harvest.

Kindness is a virtue: unfazed but wise
Abandon it, devalue it.
It would still, rise.

Ranu Uniyal is a bilingual poet from Lucknow. She is Professor of English, University of Lucknow. She has written four books of poetry- Across the Divide (2006), December Poems (2012), The Day We Went Strawberry Picking in Scarborough (2018) and Saeeda Ke Ghar (Hindi poems 2021). In 2022 she co-edited Reading Gandhi: Perspectives in the 21st Century. Her work has been translated into Hindi, Oriya, Malayalam, Marathi, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek languages. She also works for people with special needs in Lucknow (PYSSUM.org). She can be reached at ranuuniyalpant@gmail.com.