The Shore Of Grief...For R.P. Poem by r james sterzinger

This summer twenty-seven past
The one that I lost you
Grief comes back to me
Again as a slow wave
Rocking me to a shore
I had long ago committed
Myself to swim away.

The far side of that yesterday
Appears to me in this early
Morning light as my cat sleeps
Quietly next to me. I get up
Rub her ear she looks at me
Grateful, or so I believe
For rescuing and mending
Her from the beating
She had gotten from another
Feral cat looking for its
Own kill.

I sail these days through waters
Just as choppy as those that summer
You died. Your body that I loved
We covered with early fall cold earth.
Where your soul went I do not know
I have wavering beliefs on that
Subject, that is for another time.

Its the loneliness now I am
Concerned with, that empty
Feeling that I feel here in the
Early morning. I a rescuer of
Cats of others but not of you
Or of myself. I keep washing
Up to that shore of grief
Much as any dead sailor
From any given battle
Knowing that I will wash up
There until age old loss of memory.
Or my death itself leaves me
Out alone on my own
Shoreline hoping in a God
Who will rescue me.


21/7/2011