A child's grief

Grief tears a hole

In the wholeness

Of our being’s fabric

As we, numbed

With pain, clutch at threads

And attempt to attach them

One to the other,

To recreate the garment

Once so finely woven

Of flesh and blood,

From the time we first draw breath

Our voyage is our own.

The umbilical cord once cut

Seals off one to the other.

The vessel of the mother

Expels the evidence,
But the child is left with a reminder

Of what once joined it

To another’s warm flesh and fed it blood.

We gather the moments

Together treasured

And move on through

The tunnels of time

Endeavouring to recreate

Our closeness to kin

Through our own child

But yet join with the others

In reaching beyond flesh

To understand the great plan

Of old creation

Anew.