hold your loved ones close

someone i know well,

someone who i know

knows the sting of grief

in times when life feels unfair

because death finds its way into spaces

that could never in an ideal world be true,

she tells me, surely through tears,

to keep my loved ones close,

to love them with all my might,

to hold them dear,

because even if we don’t fear death

it never feels good

to have to let someone go

in a way that feels so final and harsh.

in this moment,

i hold her heart so tenderly next to mine,

to match the beat and bring calm

to a storm of grief that surely swirls and swells around her entire family.

some loss is too hard

to ever comprehend

and in those moments it’s wise

to let the grief be wild and for it to flow out.

we heal when we allow the release,

the grief that is simply a measure of our love for another.

i offer support through strength

and through letting my own tears flow

in the knowing of how

we are all connected

to the same vast well of love

and therefore also to the deep spring of grief

that bubbles to the surface

when our realities are interrupted in the harshest of ways.

and in my ears, i will hear time and again,

hold your loved ones close.

hold your loved ones close.

hold your loved ones close.