[Vision2020] The Cold Within

[Tom Hansen]

"The Cold Within"
By James Patrick Kinney 

Six humans trapped by happenstance, 
In black and bitter cold. 
Each one possessed a stick of wood, 
Or so the story’s told. 

Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back, 
For on the faces around the fire, 
She noticed one was black. 

The next man looking ’cross the way 
Saw one not of his church, 
And couldn’t bring himself to give 
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes; 
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use 
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought 
Of the wealth he had in store, 
And how to keep what he had earned 
>From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge 
As the fire passed from his sight, 
For all he saw in his stick of wood 
Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group 
Did naught, except for gain. 
Giving only to those who gave, 
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death’s still hands 
Was proof of human sin. 
They didn’t die from the cold without. 
They died from the cold within.

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Seeya at Farmers' Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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