“Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for
feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It's the knowledge
that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace
and joy finally for you too. ”
― Frederick Buechner
____________________________________________________
they sat on the bench
two old souls
wrinkled by the sun
baked brown by the heat
even in the heat of Southern California
they bore the weight of coats
several sizes too large
they were surrounded by bags
dozens of them scattered on the side walk
and stacked between them
a fortification courtesy of Walmart and Safeway
one eagerly tore at rolls rescued from
a dumpster death
eating eagerly
until
she seemed to notice for the first time
her beleaguered neighbor
then without a word
she passed a roll across
the wall that divided
eyes and hands touched
and they both
smiled
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