Older Grief
It’s about
sudden tears swept
in by a
strand of music.
It’s about
haunting echoes of
pain on
anniversaries.
It’s about
feeling his presence
for an
instant one day while dusting the room.
It’s about
early pictures that
invite
me to hold him in my arms again.
It’s about
memories blown on
wisps of
wood smoke and sea scents.
Older grief
is about aching in gentler ways,
rarer longing,
less engulfing fire.
Older grief
is about searing pain
wrought
into tenderness.