Grief makes you sick
Grief makes you sad
Grief makes you so filled with sorrow that there’s no room to breathe.
Grief makes you yearn
Grief makes you bewildered
Grief makes you different –
Grief makes you difficult to be around.
Grief makes you kinder
Grief makes you forgiving
Grief makes you understand that there is life and
Nothing but.
Grief makes you listen
Grief makes you see
Grief makes you feel
Everything, all at once, all the time.
Grief makes you laugh
Grief makes you cry
Grief makes you cry
Grief makes you cry
Cry
Grief makes you cry like there’s no tomorrow.
Grief makes you wiser
Grief makes you new friends
Pushes away old ones
And makes you rekindle old relationships.
Grief is a tangled love affair with
The person who is gone
The new life without them
And those you still need to bear.
Grief makes you take refuge
Grief makes you astonished
Grief leaves you breathless
Grief makes you want to stop
And surrender.
Grief makes you go on when it is impossible to do so
Grief makes you love when it is impossible to do so
Grief makes you love when it was impossible to do so.
Grief makes you addicted
To memory, to get by
Without.
Grief makes you cherish old plastic containers
Send text messages to ghosts
And cry a river to old ABBA songs.
Grief makes you age and resemble your Victorian great-grandmother
Grief makes you slower and gives you eye floaters
Grief makes you realize that what you thought was
is no longer.
Grief gives you magical powers
To be in the past while you’re experiencing the present
At the same time.
Grief makes you fat
Grief makes you drink
Grief makes you heavy
Grief makes you light
Grief makes you yearn for light, especially the sun.
And the sea.
And home.
Even if it’s not there anymore.
Grief makes you ugly
Grief makes you beautiful
Grief makes others ugly and beautiful.
Grief makes you wonder when it will ever be over when you know it will never be –
Just different, over time.
Grief makes you live
Grief makes you love
Grief makes you love deeper than you ever thought possible.
Grief makes you.
* * *
Words & images (c) Megan Spencer. All rights reserved.