Just this…

I will take my tears to the grave
My empathy
My humaness
The world would never be
The less
– For my absence

My pity
Did not spare me
To a life of utter bliss
From a cancerous mass

My devotions
My faith
My hope
Did not stop
dead in its track
The toxic fingers
That reach and grab
– my organs
[The spread of a disease
So nightmarish
No one yet knows
what it is.]

My mother’s prayer
Her “Jesus”
Her tears
Did not keep her daughter
Safe
Even if, “Lord,” she “believes”
[Lord, she believes]

My reliance
Did not stop the piano
From coming down on my head
From lightening striking
– twice
Or kept my plane from falling
Leaving hundreds of people
– dead.

Maybe there is a God
Maybe there is no God
Perhaps we were never friends
But I will take my tears – when I depart
My warm heart
My burning passion
Until it becomes, cold as a grave
Turning my bone into ashes.

“Vivarium”
9:53 am
October 10, 2020