When Giving Is All We Have

                                   One river gives
                                   Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.

We give because giving changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.

We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it --

Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.

Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and over again:

Giving is, first and every time, hand-to-hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.

You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me

What you did not have and I gave you
What I had to give -- together, we made

 Something greater from the difference.

Alberto Rios, A Small Story about the Sky (Copper Canyon Press, 2015)