You come in from the rain, soaking wet, dripping water on the kitchen floor, chilled to the bone, shivering your timbers.

Mother hands you a towel and says, “You Poor Thing!”

You come home from the exam or the job interview, head down, dejected, failed the test, didn’t get the job.

Mother says, “You Poor Thing!”

MamaCat carries carefully in her mouth jaws the baby kitten which she just snatched from the jaws of death in the drowning pool and says, “You Poor Thing!”

The Head Waddle Duck leads her Waddle Entourage down the street past the restaurant where her cousin is hanging roasted in the window. She turns her head duckwise, says, “You Poor Thing!” shakes her feathers and they all take to the sky.

Above the sky, Mother Earth speaks to each of her children and says, “You Poor Thing!”

Mother Universe looks down on her Blue Marble that gave her so much hope and says, “You Poor Thing!”