Love’s true face

When you had gone

skies were blue

but shards of pain dug in

so deeply hidden beneath the skin

belying the beauty of the season.

Today as I witness

autumn leaves all scattered around

the branches of my tulip tree nearly stripped bare

only one or two leaves

doggedly clinging on in the breeze

thoughts return to that autumnal afternoon

we bid you good bye

a white coffin borne to the hearse

on the shoulders of your four sons

I came undone

And I remember well

the earlier seasons of loss

those following years abandoned in a wilderness

not knowing really which way to turn

to fill the aching in my heart

of his leaving

Addicts talk of the hole in the soul

we tried to fill

with all manner of things

But all the time

under a cover of silence

pain was always waiting for us

to open the door

we were taught to close

so long ago

to surrender to this

our soul’s becoming

For it is truly only then

that true healing can be done

Scars remain in the places

those we once loved filled

hiding deeper emptiness

we must be brave enough to navigate

should we truly wish to behold

one day

the deeper complexity

of love’s true face