On a whim…

For thirty-two years

I kept the secret of my grief.

Poems unwritten,

words withheld,

a silence so heavy

it bricked the walls of our life.

.

For you,

who bore my silence

as I bore my sorrow,

you waited beside me,

through winters of hush,

through the long dark.

.

Now I write—

a voice for the dead,

and a voice for you,

the living beside me.

.

You said,

I would have loved them.

And whispered,

When I am gone,

will you remember me?

Your words cut me open

like a blade through cloth.

.

Who will deliver me?

Who will raise me

from the fall,

the fall of my silence?

.

For you,

who bore my silence

as I bore my sorrow,

let me lean,

let me lean into your embrace.

.

Let me breathe out dust and ashes,

the silence I have carried like stone.

Let me breathe in the fire of your breath,

the wine of your love,

the warmth of your body beside me.

.

For you,

for you,

for you—

into your embrace.