Lynn D. Gilbert

The  Do-Gooder

‘What can I give you that might do you good?’
I asked you, thinking to excuse my debt
of joy, dear friend—as if I ever could—
and to disguise my greedy hope to get

still more from you.  So merchants give lagniappe;
so billionaire becomes philanthropist
for tax advantage, merely tit for tat.
I must come clean: I said it to be kissed.

But you meanwhile were meditating how
we might be happy in the hours we had,
how awkward implications left unsaid,
how we might love.  This I learn from you:

To ask to do good is to flaunt one’s wealth;
for those who do most good, do good by stealth.

Lynn D. Gilbert's poems, twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes, have appeared in such journals as After Happy Hour Review, Arboreal, Blue Unicorn, carte blanche, The MacGuffin, Ponder Review, and Sheepshead Review. A founding editor of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, she lives in an Austin suburb and is an associate editor for Third Wednesday journal.