After The Funeral
From the blighted house the children pour out
Shuffling, grinning guiltily, then laughing
Their sorrow not forgotten but drowned out
By cool breezes and the sun’s soft shining.
From the vast wilderness of their broken
Hearts, the parents harvest each laugh, each word
At once sore and balm to the unfrozen
Hurt, the wound febrile as a hunting bird
That adds a ghost to each movement and sound:
A frail, dancing wind-shadow with the grace
Of the little lost one. Watching the ground
Before the doorway yearn for the one face
It will not see again, they faintly know:
This will become a sacred memory,
The first day of healing, learning to show
Smiling new faces to time’s thieving sea
by Hibah Shabkhez, first published in The Rockford Review
Editor’s Note: This poem’s beautiful imagery skillfully evokes the contradictory emotions present in a terrible loss when everyone knows that life and death are inextricably entwined.
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