Wednesday, July 3, 2013

"Grief" - A Poem, by Stephen Dobyns


Grief

Trying to remember you
is like carrying water
in my hands a long distance
across sand. Somewhere people are waiting.
They have drunk nothing for days.

Your name was the food I lived on;
now my mouth is full of dirt and ash.
To say your name was to be surrounded
by feathers and silk; now, reaching out,
I touch glass and barbed wire.
Your name was the thread connecting my life;
now I am fragments on a tailor's floor.

I was dancing when I
learned of your death; may
my feet be severed from my body.
"Grief" by Stephen Dobyns, from Velocities. © Penguin, 1994. Reprinted with permission.

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