I talked with you
I was collected and calm
While you were visibly shattered.
You could barely talk through
Your quivering lips and shaky voice
Your words had lost their stability
Your tears had wiped off
The ground beneath their feet.

I wondered after you had left
Why had your tears not flooded my heart;
And poured out through my eyes?
Has my heart toughened over the years?
Have I lost my ability to feel?
Does another’s grief no longer touch me?
Or, is it just intelligent design that each
Should only shoulder their share of grief?

Perhaps your grief does enter me…
However, it wears a different face.
Your tears live in me as a perpetual restlessness.
Your shaking voice lives in me
As unresolved anger…
Your words become a filter in my mind
Like a cloud of worry that follows me
No matter what the season.

Oh yes… I see it now
I do feel your grief…
In fact, I wear it on me…invisibly
Even as I dress and undress…
I know I too will get my chance to heal
And be relieved of this shroud of normalcy I wear
The catalyst of a personal loss
Will free me to feel all that you feel.