Tea and Sympathy

A kindness, Deborah—is that all it was?

The way to help a faltering young man

whose doubts about himself you understood?

A gesture asking nothing in return

except the knowledge he would use your gift

to shore his confidence and then forget

an older woman’s loving, or at best,

be kind, remembering? Was that enough?

Was yours a simple act of charity,

like giving away old clothes you’d never wear

that might warm someone else, just hanging there

neglected in your closet all those years?

Or did you dream of being young, in love,

wanted again, the way you were at twenty

when you last wore them? Did you hope the thrill

of youth and passion would replace the chill

of that cold man for just a little while?

You knew, of course, the way it had to end,

but was it worth it? Tell me, Deborah Kerr.

If you could change the script of memory,

would you still offer tea and sympathy?

Carol A. Taylor

10/16/03

First published in Alsop Review Anthology One, 2004