She Wore Compassion

She wore compassion

In all it’s beautiful

Colors

Never pity

Even as she

Grieved that

Which she lost

Beaten and abused

Life took her leg

He took her dignity

And replaced it with

Fear

I could hear the pain

In long distance calls

And late night

I’m’s

Long before

Facebook was

A thing.

I saw her

Wear compassion

In it’s all it’s beauty

And grace

As she stopped

Someone in the grocery

Store

A new amputee,

Trying to figure things

Out

She’d experienced

That pain

Months before.

I saw courage

Even as she cried

Tears of grief

Months of frustration

And grief

Weighing on her like

A cloak

A prosthetic leg

Not made in time

She wanted to walk

Into Church

That Easter Sunday

And all I could do

Was listen

And gently say

“It doesn’t matter

How you get there,

Just that you do.”

I knew what that meant

To her.

I saw how she

Wore laughter

As we all danced

The Makarena,

My coordination

Has never been great

A history of neuromuscular

Disorders

On my Grandfather’s side

Would give me the

Answers

But in that moment

None of that mattered.

And there was the way

She carried

Herself

In the most awkward

Of situations

As others

Muttered unkind words

The time she told

One lady

Who was more

Than just a little

Rude,

That she lost

Her lost

To a lion

In the Zoo.

And there was the

Way I could turn to her

When things got tough

And life through me

Those curveballs.

The way that no

Matter what time

It was I could call

Three am calls

Marked our friendship

As losses marked

Our life.

And there was the

Time someone nearly

Crushed me

Telling me

I didn’t care

Because I had called

To Check on her

When she was strong

Enough

She laid in to

Them

In the way

Only she could.

My best friend

Her name was courage

And she wore it

With dignity and Grace.

© Michelle R Kidwell

November.10.2022