Nativity of Loss

BETWEEN SHADOWS & LIGHT

I read a poem that evoked a tear-
a single, trembling drop
that spun me backward,
into shadows of what was
and the ever-present numbness
of could-have-beens.

25 days to go…
The air tastes different now,
heavier with memory,
as the earth tilts toward the same cold light
year after year.

a hardened, stone womb-
cold and silent
yet not strong enough
to cradle your life.

the eve of the birth
of our Savior
will forever burn
as the night I birthed death,
and carried its quiet weight
through the orbit of our sun.

Reviews

[Lorry]

It is a sad fact of life that Christmas time and ensuing festivities are but a sad reminder of other things too.
I myself have only recently started enjoying the period again after a very bad accident when I was 8 years old on Xmas eve. My hand nearly got sliced off at the wrist and I woke up on Xmas day knowing Santa was never real when my parents pretended everything was well until I opened my main present and knew Santa hadn't got the memo Re my hand when I struggled to open up a drum kit I wouldn't be able to use until the following July!
Each year after that had zero participation in it from me and strangely it was lockdown that made me celebrate it once more.
Now through our work we deliver gifts and toys to kids in care, as well as a single family refugee that once had a more brutal name that no one needed to use.
There are so many people where the holidays are a reminder of sadder times that they cant shake and it can lead to other problems too, like seclusion and loneliness.
If you ever need reminding of it just go onto YouTube and look at drink driving ads from the 80's or domestic abuse campaigns from the same period. There are far too many people suffering through this time and most suffer in silence sadly.
Even your words, although etched in such sadness are a means to communicate and release for some of the pain to escape through the pressure valve release of writing.

[Curly Grace]

Thank you for sharing this, Lorry.
I’m sorry for what you went through, and grateful you chose to speak it here.
It means a lot that the poem made space for you to say it.

[Brandon Houser]

You are very talented Grace. You are fearless with every emotion you confront. It makes your prose endlessly readable.

[Curly Grace]

Thank you, Brandon.
This one took a lot to write, so your words mean more than you know...

[Arundass TP]

Nicely written poem. Loved it reading

[Curly Grace]

I will always love you, my heart.

[D. Mansfield]

Keep writing it will keep helping you sooth the pain

[Curly Grace]

I must say yesterday was a ball of emotions bubbling up. thank you for your kind words, Jimmy