Monday, March 7, 2016

#SOL16: What Grief Is

Rob Through a Portal (M.A. Reilly, Massachusetts, 2012)

I.

This is grief.

II.

You are driving and without warning a memory surfaces.
Usually it is a small, innocuous moment recalled.

The more ordinary the moment--the harsher the response.

And then you are screaming.

III.

Now I need you to understand it is not simply a loud cry.
No, not crying (even though you are doing that too).

This is a different animal you have found.
A very different animal.

IV.

You can hear yourself screaming, screaming, screaming, whimpering, whimpering and screaming more  and more and more
until the very breath in you stops,
halts that animal,
and you resettle, surprised
somehow to find your cheeks wet,
                                                      your mouth loose,
                                                      your car still moving,
everything still moving.

9 comments:

  1. Oh. I wish we could all wrap our arms around you

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  2. MaryAnn, you are moving through this process with far more grace than I thought possible. This explosion of grief seems to me to what you needed to continue through the process.... hugs

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  3. I feel as Ira and Deb do. Years ago I painfully discovered there's no getting around grief. Simply can't reach the other side without going through it. Hugs.

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  4. Sending you a virtual embrace to let you know I am thinking of you.

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  5. You describe the pain so well that I tear up thinking of what you're going through.

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