Last night they came with news of death

Someone I hardly knew.

I wanted to say the fish float belly-up in the slow stream stepping stones to the dead

Clearly some wounds time cannot heal.

For this loss, I could not speak
The tongue lay idle in a great darkness

Some deaths are unnatural.  Some are left living, yet taken too.

It was then, when I said “He is no longer here, he is no longer here”

I cannot begin to imagine having to say those words with their grotesque finality.

That the night put its arms around me
And all the white stars turned bitter with grief

Grief becomes a necessary and eternal companion.

Peace.

~Jim

Lines in italics from David Whyte’s News of Death, http://www.davidwhyte.com/welcome/