Beyond the Curtain
Impermanence cuts deep—
Joanie, gone two days;
the same raw wound
as my father’s absence
forty-seven years past.
Time does not dull the blade;
the stars above Forest Green
still echo with grief.
I know the counsel:
be steadfast, endure,
accept that all things pass,
hold sorrow with dignity.
But my heart rebels.
It whispers of love
that does not die,
a bond that cannot be broken.
Those who brushed against death
tell of light,
of embraces waiting,
of voices calling them home.
Perhaps their visions are more
than wishful dreaming—
perhaps the thread of love
is never severed,
only hidden for a while.
If this is so,
then grief is not an end
but waiting.
Not silence, but a pause
before the music resumes.
So I bear the pain—
with courage, yes,
but also with hope:
that Joanie runs free
where suffering cannot follow,
that my father smiles still
beyond the horizon,
and that one day
when the curtain parts,
love will gather us whole again.
Sharing my grief is part of how I carry it. Joanie has been gone only two days. The ache feels as sharp as losses did decades past. Writing these words helps me steady myself, to remember that love endures, even through sorrow.
Each verse a step, each line a reminder: love endures.
#Poetry #Endures