“Death at Sea”

miscarriage is like
a death at sea
in the olden days,
when there was no choice but
to throw the body
overboard,
and the
mourning family would stand at the prow,
watching the body
sink,
watching it
slip
away into the
depths of an endless ocean,
knowing they would
never
again pass by this way,
knowing there would
never
be a neat little plot of land
with a headstone announcing to the world that
This Person Lived.

the heartache is similar,
the fear that,
having no physical reminders,
they will be

Forgotten.

but any person who has
ever
been a part of someone else,
whether in body
or in soul ,
can never be forgotten.
our very cells cry out the daily reminder, saying
This Person Lived.
our lives become their headstones,
our eyes tell their stories when our lips cannot,
and our hearts pulse with the
memory of their influence,
no matter how

brief.