True To Kind Is Gold Poem by Tony Cemaluk

A parading wolf does not lie about what it is. You see the teeth, you hear the growl, you know the distance to keep. The danger is open, so the decision is yours.

A caged wolf is different. The cage does the lying for it. It asks for pity. It wears a softness it did not earn. You move closer thinking you are meeting a fellow harmless creature, and you lower your guard because the cage told you to.

That is the saddest wound. Not the bite, but the surprise. You were not overpowered. You were misled. You trusted a costume, and the costume invited you in. Like poison served in a clean glass.

A parading wolf is not good. It is only clear. Clarity is not kindness, but clarity lets you protect yourself. Deceit does not.

So neither fight the parading wolf nor pity the caged one. Do not try to pet what is only performing gentleness.

Watch for the mismatch. If the softness looks rehearsed, step back. If the pity feels staged, step back. If the words are soft but the eyes stay cold, step back. Discernment is not suspicion. It is keeping your guard until the inside matches the outside.

Let what is dangerous show itself as dangerous. Truth, even when it is fierce, is safer than a gentle mask that hides teeth.

To be true to kind is gold, because gold does not pretend to be what it is not. It can be weighed, it can be tested, it can be trusted.