Grieving

Tragedy is a word for other people’s problems until it becomes your life

For a while

Until the sweetness creeps back in

It doesn’t take long, and it’s not complicated

Ducks on a beach, the enveloping perfume of flowers

Companions to bear witness to your pain

To wade in the water with you for a while

Ankles in the shallows while they wait for you to return from the deeper pools of anguish and swimming holes of sorrow

Children who don’t shy away from the big questions

Babies who look and look and look into your eyes

These little ones, so close to the mystery

such wise and holy beings