When the Neighborhood Bully was Sentenced

When the Neighborhood Bully was Sentenced

If we’re patient of ordinary things-
like a baby’s cry, or elderly ladies
slowly blocking the supermarket
isles, or deaf old men needing repetitions
of simple words or directions, or wives
burning our Sunday dinners, perhaps there’s
hope for us yet.

The patience of ordinary things is not
a given, a birthright; it is an art
learned at the apron strings of a kindly
grandmother, or in a fishing boat
listening to the gentle voice of a dad
guiding us through worm-threading
lessons. It’s a gift that not everyone
receives.

The patience of ordinary things is
intricately tied to words like kindness,
consideration, love, courtesy, reverence-
boy scout kind of words, words never thought
of in my neighbor’s household. Theirs was a
house of the impatience of ordinary things-
rudeness, yelling, bullying, arguing. No one
was surprised when John went to prison for
crippling Martha- his wife over a shirt stain.