The Cold Within

[stickyvicky]

Happy Martin Luther King Day everyone! It reminds me of a poem we learned in highschool. I believe it is public domain. I have thought of this poem over and over again over the years, and even more nowadays as our political climate is getting colder. I wanted to share it with you.

THE COLD WITHIN
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

[hennar2017]

How true the words! It is sad that we have made the world the way it is today but there are a lot more good than bad people out there. The good just don't get in the news like the bad stuff does. We need more love in this world that is for sure.

[PeterL22]

Your soul is ageless, colourless, has no money and no politics - why try to spoil it!