Sunday 8 October 2017

Empty nester run-up



You haven’t left the house yet. But everything
suddenly falls into a chill headlong -
a choked gasp like my room itself were being
sucked dry of all the room you’d brought along.
No space, no space, none to breathe or to sing,
even the urban birds lose their tortured songs;
the universe feels like it’s lost its footing -
the sky and earth are both awry, hanging wrong.


You’re not going away just yet, you’re here,
a foot sometimes must swing out - that’s enough
to deform rooms to ooze, undo the year.
All birds’ eyes are wounds, all the stars are fears;
and all the words I can speak, or think of,
keen at the edge of grief, though they start with love.









14 comments:

  1. So much pain. So much love. They are so often inextrixably combined.

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    1. Love, of any kind, is a high-risk, high-return undertaking! Not for the fainthearted.

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    2. But worth the risk. Every time.

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    3. Oh, totally! The risk is its own reward!

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  2. Oh Nila so true!! Love and grief intricately lived.
    Love it

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    1. Grief is the other side of love, isn't it? thank you!

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  3. Hi Nila - frightening to be so 'in it' ... it reminds me of horror - but if love will come out then that's good ... but as you've all said - love and grief inextricably entwined - always through life ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Yes, they are inextricably entwined, can't have one without the other...

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  4. A change in life that's not easy to handle.

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  5. Leaving on a good note is a grand thing. And a new era begins. Keep looking on the positive side and smile through tears.

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    1. And there are a tonne of positives to it too, only I need to stop panicking and list them down :)

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  6. I agree that grief is the other side of love. Often we feel both at the same time for the same relationship.

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    1. Yup, we are capable of the most complex-intense mixes.

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