Unremembered Acts

Rising earlier

than strictly necessary

to mediate a dispute

that’s brought hot tears,

Trying for a laugh

through sleep-gunked eyes,

amazed that it works,

aware that it won’t always.

Rubbing oil on your eyelids,

wishing to anoint

with the strength of tens

of thousands of women,

Pulling you close,

blinking back my own tears

against the inevitability

of your broken heart.

Kerry's prompt to the Real Toads (for poem seven of thirty in April!) asked us to respond to a quote from William Wordsworth. I chose this one: 

The best portion of a good man's life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.