does death
always have to come
with vain
if the proper steps aren’t taken,
if you decide
to sit with it for a while,
question
why the loss of something,
someone,
can’t just stand still, be what it is,
a truth that lays down
beneath the dirt besides its owner,
doesn’t trickle into the water
asking you to take a drink,
to take it as your own.
it’s hard work, making sense of it;
but maybe we are responsible, in part.
maybe we can choose, if we are willing,
if we are able, to hold onto the love
that you have lost and rekindle it,
make it something valuable, something important–
something that, in it’s own way,
allows us to say,
“At least he didn’t die in vain.”
July 30, 2017