Laughter lives in me daily
Like the playful breeze
That guides the squirrels
To and from the splash pines
Dotting the neighborhood.

I receive a fresh and constant
Infusion of love on the daily
Circulating through my spirit
Elevating and moving me to charity.

It is the grief that takes my breath.
It hides in the notes of a lost song
Twenty years forgotten.
It’s in the images of shared moments
Between myself and friends that death
Will never give back.
It’s in the sting of that last rejection,
And the last gasp of faith in companionship.
A cumulative force, an infectious silent killer,
There comes the day when the squeeze tightens,
Arteries closing upon themselves until, at last,
The throbbing muscle moves no life force to the mind.
The mind instructs the body to self destruct.
The Grief has done it’s job.