November 8, 2021

Recompense

There comes a time 
when grief in a diluted form 
is a gift.
My missing someone 
manifests in happy memories 
that no longer hurt.
Instead I marvel at how
they were -- the vivacity
that was their being –
the impression they left
that thrives within me,
gifts of expression 
in body and action:
the exchange of touch,
warm words, inside jokes;
the giving and receiving 
in tender humility – 
even the complications
that no longer have 
traction. They all mix 
with what makes us laugh 
and remember.