Softening

Now that I feel the birds

Singing their sad lament

To the end of summer

My thoughts are drawn on the wind

To kin who have passed

Their absent selves

Hovering on the edge of remembering

And when the skies turn grey

I am surprised to find

A light and warmth

That grows inside

So different to all of those years ago

Maybe time is a healer

But not without our willing surrender

To all the painful feelings

That speak of longing and disappointment

And it occurs to me

That maybe life is not meant

To go our way

And there is some delay

Always when our broken hearts

Longed for so much more

Attention and tenderness

But then I remember you cannot give

What you never got

And so it was for me to bear the cost

And turn the pain around

In time

To something softer

So each tear I cried

Was worth the pain

Of forgiving

Of allowing the softening

Into tenderness