The Kindness of Strangers

It is the little things that tend
to burden us, the realization that
time has passed and with that passage
our effortless response to situations
has been compromised because time
and aging are synonymous.  Sometimes
less a direct appeal, someone unknown -
not even noticed, approaches offering
young eyes to the aid of a pair well
used in their time.  Those simple acts
of stranger kindness, a confident and
robust youth wordlessly and gently
lifting a heavy object from the weary
arms of an elder, then awaiting
instructions where they may proceed
in aid, assure us we are not alone.