Kindness And Mercy (Easter,2013) Poem by Jacqui Thewless

Kindness and mercy
outlast the lesser virtues.

Something in the sap's
rising and falling arranges this,
knowing the heaviness

of all the rest will be jettisoned
when both weigh too much more than
the human I Am that passes

almost unnoticed
into paradise

when something more than peace
between old enemies is lost -
a core of surplus

bitter behaviour ripens, with unseen
shame, always gaining density; one day
it drops from the tree of life

and budding continues, as green
and plenteous as new grass.