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I've been writing and have another poem. It is about grief...the process, and I'm finding I am letting go of the heavy feeling at times, laughing at something James has said, or something Bogie is doing. I do like to write about the feelings of grief, it helps me to understand and accept them.


In the Launguage of Grief
by T.L. Stokes
I was the only willow in the back yard
of the old house,

and sought to bend as far as my loose arms
would go, sullen brooms

swish, swish, stirring tears with soil over roots
sunken to the first step

of the coffin.

I have walked with the dead for weeks now
holding a mask

because my face has fallen.
I don't mind carrying it this way

while I place prayers and lanterns
on bare arms 

after the first storm left
paper hearts bloody and bright

with the glory
of their sudden untethering.

I held your stem
trying to remember the leaf.

            ***

11/03





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