James Kinney- The Cold Within
The poem “The Cold Within”, is about six people who by coincidence are stuck in the cold with a burning fire whose flame is about to burn out if one of the six people does not put their stick of wood inside the fire.
All the people in the poem are from different backgrounds and religions making it hard for any person to put his stick into the fire because of their grudges towards the other members in the groups’ affiliations.
A very poignant piece of prose, especially in today’s increasingly jingoistic n fanatical world
The Cold Within
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In dark and bitter cold
Each possessed a stick of wood–
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
But the first one held hers back,
For,of the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next one looked cross the ways
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes
He gave his coat a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of wealth he had in store,
And keeping all that he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For he saw in his stick of wood
A chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain,
Giving just to those who gave
Was how he played the game,
Their sticks held tight in death’s stilled hands
Was proof enough of sin;
They did not die from cold without —
They died from cold within.
