On Loss of a Child

 

Losing a Child

(for beloved friends) 

What can one say at the loss of a child?

What can one do at the loss of a smile?

Any loss is tragic; we’re doomed from the start.

How can you manage pain that comes from the heart?

 

How does one continue when the day suddenly stops?

Where does one go when the other shoe drops?

We tell ourselves it’s not fair, this can’t be so, and NO!

How can we see tomorrow when the other door has closed?

 

What do we tell our friends who sadly watch?

How do we deal with the sorrow this day had wrought?

Numb from pain we move through each day,

Hoping all tears will be washed away.

 

Reminders of yesterday and days to come,

Do they fade as slowly as the setting sun?

But twilight remains, and it is here we go,

To grieve the loss that has brought us low.

 

What can one say at the loss of a child?

What can one do at the loss of a smile?

Tho’ we carry on as best we can,

Keeping memories close 

...For a loss unplanned.

 

~d.lawrence

From my book Looking In from Outside: Poetry & Prose, titled “On Loss of a Child.”

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Photo Courtesy of Karim MANJRA