“Why should we be nice?”
His daughter asked
As the evening news played
Yet another story of violence,
Of dissent, of anything but “nice.”

He didn’t know how to respond.
Why should we be nice?
If everyone else was going to fight,
Or demean, or argue…
Then why should we be nice?

She was waiting for an answer.
He didn’t have one.
If everyone else–
He paused.
If everyone else wasn’t, then….

“Because they aren’t,” he said.
“When others aren’t nice
Then it means even more
That we be nice in their place.”

And she accepted that:

A simple answer to a question

That was anything but.

Copyright Sarah Davidson 2021