The Cold From Within

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak 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 man held his back

For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking cross the way
Saw one not of his church

And could not 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 their sight.

For all he saw in his stick of wood,
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.

Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death's still hand
Was proof of human sin.

They didn't die from the cold without
They died from the cold within!

......  James Patrick Kinney  ......