ESSEX II

As the world came apart,

We have come together.

Only we can save us.

Our faces fill with the hour,

New meaning lapping

Against us like mooned tides.

Laden with what we’ve lost,

We are led

By what we love.

As far away as it is,

The late sun looks

Peelable in our palm.

That is to say, distance

Renders all massiveness

Carriable. It is the carrying

That makes memory mutual,

The pain both private & public.

Slowly, grief becomes a gift.

When we greet it, when we listen to our loss,

When we indeed let it live,

It will not shrink in size,

But lighten in load.

It lets us breathe.

The densest despair takes

Us to no ordinary joy.

Sometimes diving

Into the deep inside us

Is the only way

We rise above it.