a small fire burns within the cavity I once called my heart. the shadows cast by the flames — a memorial — each a sweet remembrance, a lost hope, a faded dream, dancing on the cave walls like figures in jubilation.
Tag: grief
Angel Wings and the Man I Love
This day the angels failed to spread their wings, this night the stars fade to black. Morning will come with no indication, no hint of salvation. This day the birds had no song to sing, this night prayers whispered toward Heaven fell back. And Morning, she slipped past, the echo of a laugh. This day…
the cemetery gates
The echo of loss rings from beyond the cemetery gates as I pass by in wonder of lives and loves lost, always too soon, no matter the age. Weeping willows, winding streams, rolling hills, and monuments etched from stone stand sentinel beyond the cemetery gates where the specter of grief walks the rows alone, in…
The Troll Bridge
the clatter of skateboard wheels, the crunch of tussling in autumn leaves, laughter at intimate jokes, lines from movies and books, dreams spun spider web thin, abandoned, collecting dust, yet sparkling in the right slant of light these memories, we shared, now mine alone I horde, an angry troll under the bridge that others dare…
The Second Calling
The Second Calling I Do you know why I want to believe in ghosts? The night you died, the phone broke through our wailing. I answered a screen filled with zeros to echoes of silence. II As they wheeled you away, I kissed your forehead, the cold radiating through me like winter glass my frostbit…
To Matt
your image recedes, like a silhouette beneath dark waters the presence known by the points of light left in its wake, the way phosphorescent algae bursts to life as you swim. You cut through darkness with brilliance that hovers and shimmers long after you have glided beyond. Yet when I close my eyes you are…
Five elegies (Elegy 3: the younger sister)
a dress is not worth so much as this. the fight should not have happened. cotton and stitch. But it’s mine after all, I am not to blame. I didn’t tell her to go. she had plenty to wear. So what if it matched her gray sweater. I should have gone like she…
In the woods
In the woods, we made peace. A day spent together, a 10-mile hike. Stop to gaze: a herd of deer, in a glade—30, 40, 50? The path washed out by flooding, stuck in the mud, and laughing. The sun kept time overhead: counting out chatter, dreams, secrets, laughter, plans. I remember how you could tell…
Better Days
I yearn for better days, as I lay new bricks in the garden path, watch a young man’s baseball game. Laugh with loved ones at memories, marbled with pain and fondness. The sun on my skin, the chatting of a warm stranger, a simple meal shared, and looking back, see today was a better day. …
sunday
the thorns of a new week crown through the pink clouds in sulfur-yellow shards of sun. each passing day, week, I fight to make this stumbling more than the sorrow of missing you, less than the joy of counting the days until we are reunited. Time is a two-faced lover: easing and stealing. Yet I…
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