Kindness

• Alice Hunter, Grade 12
• Poetry
• 2006

As she touched the quivering leaf, her eyes fell beyond the tree
And onto something more in need, a little hummingbird
It lay there all alone, upon the ground, without a sound
She placed the fellow in her hand and hummed the bird a song


As she moved her lips to sing a sudden wind arose
She looked around and then she saw the leaf had fallen to the ground
She dashed to the tree, bird in hand and bent to collect the leaf
And as she got nearer the ground the hummingbird started to sing


It stirred in its sleep and twitched its arms and opened it’s eyes just so
It picked itself up off her palm and she watched the fellow go
She moved her eyes down to the leaf which quivered no more
And set the leaf back on its branch high above the forest floor