In Memoriam: Stories of a Life Well Lived
Just an ordinary day
is what you expect
sometimes you are
given two.
You complain about
shoveling
boots and scarves
the truck’s frozen lock.
Then you hear a wail,
the kind when babes go missing.
It’s a wail in the woods
that stops the earth’s revolution
stills the sun and moon.
I hear the wail
you hear the wail, and know
that love as old as the forest
has been interrupted
as old as the hills and rocks
and then it snows.
– Mimi Moriarty
When we lose
Someone we love,
It’s not enough to say
Our hearts are broken,
The sentence
Doesn’t end there.
Rather, our hearts
Are broken Open,
Deeper, wider, such that,
The more we lose,
The more worn away
And hollowed out,
The greater our gift
For loving becomes.
This slow
And persistent grief
Wears away
Soft passages
Inside us,
The way water
Weaves through
Limestone and marble.
This elaborate
Network of caves,
Beautiful,
Dark and blue,
And the cool, cool
Wind formed
From our
Very own breath.
—
By David Mussen