You cannot discover compassion, it
isn’t something you can buy on Amazon
or find along the side of a rural road.
It cannot be found in books, or gifted
by ministers who promise anything
for a tithe and pledge of your soul.
It is something that exists within you,
much as curiosity exists within a cat
alongside its own form of compassion
that nature cloaks in strange behaviors.
You do not develop compassion, for it
is fully developed, but you do
have to stop suppressing it, stop
denying it, subjugating it to need
or greed or ambition or ambivalence.
And when you live it you may not
receive gratitude or acknowledgement,
you may not feel better about yourself.
It is not a gift you give, it is given
to meet the need or distress of others
and that is what makes you both human.