I experienced a loss last week and in response I wrote this poem:
Salutation
Even when fear hits you like a train and keeps on coming.
Even when loss arrives and grief fills your throat with black tar.
Even when his absence bloats your gut and the kernel
that is your sternum throbs and shrinks tighter and tighter
to squeeze your life until your lungs become glue.
Even when you let rip the sound of an animal
so guttural the universe falters and everything presses
you down, down, down so
you wonder how can a body withstand all this?
Then miraculously
you rise to hold yourself dear, like a butterfly cupped
within cool palms, a creature so delicately
strong with beating wings and tapping antenna
that you feel all of life as one and you say yes
to everything and open your fingers in a mini salutation
to loving him, Buzzie, your special fella.
LyndyH 