Kim Stafford: Curse of the Charmed Life

Oh, tears! This is so raw. And true. Bless Kim Stafford for telling the truth in ways that penetrate our hearts... if our hearts are open enough to be pierced with the felt awareness of the suffering of others. 

 

And once I turned away and did not see. But today I do. And there’s not a little tent city that doesn’t make me want to weep. And there’s not a person on a street corner with a little sign who I pass up if I can reach them with my hand and heart and a dollar or more and, most importantly, with looking into their eyes and saying “Bless You” and communicating as best as I can — I see you and you matter.  

 

Again and again I reflect to my husband, this shouldn’t be. And he repeats back, this shouldn’t be. My heart aches. 

 

The need for a caring revolution cannot be overstated. May we bravely not turn away. May we recognize and transform our charmed lives, turning ignorance and apathy and blindness into fierce compassionate action... again and again and again. Another world is possible! — Molly

 

 Curse of the Charmed Life

Things pretty much worked out for you—

you have what you need, and if you need more,

you have people ready and able to provide.

Sure, someday your luck will run out,

you’ll be helpless, then gone, and your people

will gather in your honor.

There will be music, and tears. People will

embrace—for you. There will be an odd

buoyancy, a chatter of kind words, blessing.

But the curse of this charm is exile

from the unlucky, how gifts make you

deaf to the sudden shout

of a man camped in the ravine,

make you blind to the dirty face

of a woman with a cardboard sign.

Without hunger, it’s easy to be heartless.

Without hurt, you are disabled. Without

the battering of bad luck, the pummeling

of lost hopes, the wounds of life without love,

of dark dreams that last past dawn, how can you

know what one life might do for another?

 

— Kim Stafford

 

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Kim Stafford, “Curse of the Charmed Life” from Singer Come From Afar. Copyright © 2021 by Kim Stafford. Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Story Line Press, an imprint of Red Hen Press, www.redhen.org.