April 24, 2012

One poem by Maeve Heneghan


Kindness of Strangers

Old woman,
Stranger in a foreign land,
Sits on unforgiving ground.

She looks you in the eye and says,
“Hello, Big Issue lady?”
She knows you won’t reply.

Unnoticed by the hurried mass,
One man goes against the tide,
Makes this faceless woman, human.

He cups her weathered hand in his,
Holds out one silver coin,
Maybe, just for a moment,
She sees the face of God,
In the kindness of a stranger.

Maeve Heneghan is a native of county Dublin, Ireland.  After spending a number of years teaching English in China, she returned to Ireland and now lives in the Midlands with her husband and daughter.  She has been writing poetry and short stories for several years and has had some of her work published online and in print.

4 comments:

  1. Maeve this is a moment well captured, excellent poem. Reminds me of a similiar moment I had recently.

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