Small Kindnesses

I sometimes forget the world runs on small kindnesses
like the one I saw on the train from Seville to Madrid. 
An old man across the aisle went to the café car
and returned with a ham sandwich and two beers. 
Carefully, he flattened the cardboard container to make a plate,
peeled off the outer layer of paper from the sandwich 
and gave the larger half to his wife. 
She didn’t react, used to these displays of kindness, 
decades of shared meals and daily life
captured in this single action. 
They took little bites from the sandwich and put it down
as if chipping away patiently at life 
while they sipped their cervezas in silence.