These bleeding tears of autumn leaves bead on cheek bones, a mind filled with memory.
Warmth and chill in aching harmony wash over each other, waves in low tide.
The pictures fill up every corner, but not for long before they are dragged back, exposing the dampened grains of sand, the evidence of being drenched, longing and fear; waiting for the water to engulf them once more.
The familiar, fading smells, the over powering warmth of the hugs as the child runs to her, to be lifted and protected and pampered. The child has to be the first to get there, it is tradition.
The thread is broken, and the child now clings, digs her nails in, the trace must not fade, the tracks must not disappear.
So the salt water is welcomed, welcomed to trace the tracks, entrench the memories, anchor them.
The cycle continues, but to lose that one grain of sand; that tragedy, the unbearable anguish!
Frantic attempts the mind makes to find it! Frenzied, hands flail in search of one grain; as the salt burns the lungs, the mind’s body curls up into a foetal, throbbing mass; until it can stretch out again, pinned against its will by acceptance.
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. The words circle around, crash into a solid brick wall, and fall to the ground, one by one; Acceptance lingers; burning at the edges, it floats to the ground, damaged blackened, withered, but emancipated. It now carries around the memory of its brothers, but walks alone.
A poem based on the 5 stages of grief.
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