kindness remembered (in memoriam Wilmot Perkins, 1931-2012)

 what matters in the end is you were kind

even to those you thought far in the wrong

which brought its wisdom and it made you strong

when the all the shouters said you undermined

goodness itself while you cursed them for blind

unpatriotic fools chanting their lone song

always so eager to make pain last long

while you desired to open up each mind

now that is in the past and what is left

is wisdom recollect gentle words and soft

suggestions made without pretence or guile

we see so clearly how all ends in theft

of those things we have held highest aloft

but we will all get to there in a while