The morning fowl did not announce the coming of the day.
Milking buckets stayed empty; why, no one could say.
Muffled, through the open windows came haunting sounds;
Something chased away the dreams, like lathered hunting hounds.
These nightmares had no bugles; they had no marching drums.
She had started every day with a verse, 
or a long-remembered song.
Having done no hurt nor, to my knowledge, no wrong.
These times were called evil; dark souls were close about.
When the pious dammed poor Elisabeth, with devils’ work related,
Her staked demise brought a cold fog to the village, 
to which it was soon mated.	
Worried lips and eyes spoke that she had never confessed.
Someone was needed to cleanse this troubled land;
A knight of Christ was chartered for the strength of his hand.
The Vicar cried out for relief, but the dark fog lingered on.
He came, large and proud, for how many dragons had he slain?
Roaring out a challenge and flashing high his sword in vain.
At the ashes, the villagers turned their heads as they passed.
From the fog came the sound of her crypt being opened.
Elisabeth’s voice called out through charred lips the names, 
until now unpenned.
Doors and windows were hurriedly closed and shuttered.
Having heard the charges that brought an innocent’s 
fire-bound death,
The knight then spoke. “If guilty you will each feel 
the dragon’s breath.”
The dark fog slowly settled around this house and that one.*
 
*19 persons were executed in the witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
A Simple Act
By Nila K. Bartley
VA Medical Center—Chillicothe, OH
I was beyond despair. I did not want to live.
No hope. No joy. No laughter. 
Devoid of anything except fear of living.
I tried to kill myself.
After that I felt nothing. I was numb. 
Being numb was a brief respite 
from being terrified all the time.
Someone smiled at me in the psych ward 
of the hospital and I did not know how to respond.
I was dead inside. What brought me back to life? 
Kindness! Kindness of people I barely knew.
It pierced through what had seemed 
like an impenetrable haze. 
The haze had surrounded me till it engulfed me. 
I felt like I had been swallowed whole.
A saving but vigorous wind of compassion 
blew the rest of the haze away. 
I could see again.
People. Goodness. Goodness in people. 
I had thought none was left.
Traveling so long in what had seemed 
like an impenetrable haze 
dulled my senses to the point 
that I could not see beyond my own misery.
The combination of kindness and compassion 
restored my faith in people.
It was that combination that totally obliterated the haze. 
With it gone, I have returned the kindness and compassion 
I had been given and passed it on to others.
Please do not ever doubt the difference 
a simple act of kindness can make.