Loss
Loss rages
unexpected
as a bushfire
it burns
the water dry
cardboard drops
stick inside
my blistered
throat
The world once
upright overturned
I walk legless
and catatonic
Even months
from now
after I have strained
singlehandedly to
push these monolithic
buildings back into
their rightful place
this decimated spot
where you once stood
will lie empty
and my choices will be
to tend the weeds
that grow in your place
or avoid this place forever
This hurtful place
that drew a line
smack bang
through my life
and gashed its
forever scar of across
my face and heart
Before
and
after
My hands will
perpetually
flutter
and rub
this welt that bears
witness
to you
being wrenched out
of my life
And here we all stand
in cindered fields
emotions spent
bearing our new
definitions
ones that have us
hyphenated
mother-less
father-less
brother-less
sister-less
child-less
And when all
seems gone
you dissolved
only reflections remain
we catch glimpses
of ourselves
aching to hold it
together
clutching at scattered
fragments of
our souls and stitching
them back together to
never become
soul-less
© Tanya Southey
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