Olive
I spent my childhood sitting at your feet
Reading the TV Guide for pleasure
Painting your nails, fluffing your cloudlike hair
On the porch we’d play make believe
Pretending you were a Hollywood starlet
Now aged, reflecting on your storied career
Then you were gone
And my days were no longer spent
Expanding my imagination
I grew up too quickly
Forced to accept that my best friend
Wouldn’t want me to mourn
No more pretending
No more make belive
No more easy summer memories
I lost my innocence the summer you left
Enveloped in a grief I didn’t understand
A feeling no one would explain
My best friend was gone
2 thoughts on "Olive"
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a great portrait of loss
Thank you! This poem was about my Great Aunt, my Grandfather’s Oldest sister. Her death affected me profoundly, I just didn’t know how profoundly until I began unpacking my trauma with my therapist.