Death is never a clean break — some stardust always remains.
loss
Abrupt
When you’re used to seeing someone day after day, for years on end, and then suddenly they’re gone, you
Why we can’t let go
Regret is the glue that makes grief stick around for a lifetime.
Connections
Those we love and lose are always connected by heartstrings into infinity.
Fragile
Grief is looking up
and seeing Never
at your window —
rapping on the pane
of your heart —
Memories shiver
Why does cold weather refresh old griefs?
More quiet for reflection?
Longer nights to lie awake?
Like citrus, grief is a winter fruit.
Sudden silence
The death of a loved one is a sudden silence — one of those deafening silences that leaves ringing in
A final breath in winter
Dying ain’t pretty. Death is beautiful.
May you
May you lose a lot that matters to you
a few times in your life—
May you make and remake and
remake yourself over and again
and burn yourself right down
to ashen smoking embers
of bone and grit and soul—
So that you may always know
the pain of rock bottom
the freedom of rebirth
the hope of revival
the gift of perspective
the awareness of your strength—
May you lose but live again.
Death lights heavy
Hummingbird mama
abandons her nonviable eggs —
but keeps checking back
a few more times, just to be sure.
An arm falls from a sickly saguaro
and breaks open on the ground
like a prickly green eggshell —
after decades of desert still-life
a few seconds of death-motion.
But the night breeze is so beautiful
those breezes are — so beautiful
it’s hard not to get swept away.
Memorial
Grieving makes us stronger
it gives us a spirit of grace
and the grace of spirit —
Our hearts feel weaker
but living past loss is
the ultimate courage —
We honor our loved ones
by living on despite,
and all the more because.
Inscribed
graves are not limited
to the cemetery —
they lurk in our minds,
and buried in our hearts
lie garlanded stones
marking loved ones lost
A January day that lives forever
In my mind —
I’ve tried a million
times to go back
to that day —
tried to change
my choices
begged a do-over
from the universe
I’ve crippled myself with
guilt
sorrow
thrashing the quicksand
sinking in
layers of grief
fighting a sticky web
trapped in
regret-regret-regret
I don’t even care about
my own
broken heart
I’m sorry
I broke yours