Anti-grieving

After another poet

In this poem, no love dies
& A boy is not writing
An elegy to remember the smiles
Of his mother/flower.
Today, no child sits at the graveside
Mourning an old friend
& A mother is not silent
While her chest is a burning city.
This poem does not tell you to grieve
Or remind you of the weight of grief.
Here, a pain is a feather
& Your laughter takes the weight of iron.
So to say: I offer my fears & pain
To the zephyr/my eyes closed/
I flutter them open/& I find my glom gone.
Like this I find my body brimming with grace.
Like this, I am the night sky
My pain is the sun.

——-
Poem © Ayiyi Joel
Image: Marek Piwnicki Unsplash (remixed)