Brave Souls That Have Passed

Many have passed this life in a short few weeks
I learned of another yesterday
Today I do not want to learn about anyone else.
Whether friends, family or patients
The grieving for each gets too intense.
It is easy to say
They are in a better place
The are free from the pain of their life.
The pain of my own life haunts me,
tied to all past pieces of grief
All bundled and tied
Put away in a memory cupboard.
Each time I open that cupboard door
Shuffling and wedging into ever tinier spaces
Finding an empty corner for the next sad bundle
Letting go of the heaviness of grief
Is part of the next step
But a piece of that grief - that memory -
Is mine to keep for a while
The memory of many loved ones
The memory of walking through many healing journies
And memories of the kindness and light in eyes
Even if just a flicker
The sign on the cupboard door reads 
Brave Souls That Have Passed
To know that my grief has not been in vain
That I will keep seeing goodness in the eyes of the living
Will sustain me through my sadness.

“In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

~ Theodore Roethke