Loss and Grief

For S. Hurton and close family.

Age, I find myself conversant
in doomed languages Proficient
in speaking the prose of grief
That sacred covenant between
the lost and left behind Soft
sorries Much meant I'll be thinking
of yous The heart's tongue
somehow miraculously knowing,
when sometimes the to be said
is so absent, evasive
Mourning has a cadence, despondency
an octave, notes trickle down like
tears As graves consume loved ones
but never memories -
crucially, never the opportunity
to love again Affirmation that
the next grasp will be tighter,
the chosen cherished so much
the better
Now we are versed in death's
dialect