Life And Loss Poem by Elizabeth Grace

Life is so easily created
borne from the ashes of a remembered love
lifted on a pedestal
in reverence and salutation
to the true meaning of existence

How precious it is
how rare and valuable
to take the ultimate creation of two people
to hold it in your arms
and to feel a tiny heartbeat

But not everything comes in shiny white packages
Sometimes, the most valuable gifts
become the greatest losses
Sometimes, it's hard to bear
when the coffin is so much smaller than it should be.

Lives end so easily, a strange
fragility courses through our veins, and
tiny, shined caskets can't replace
the smiles that light up a little face
and a mother's red lipstick marks a kiss
on the lid of the bed of the child she misses

She returns home to an empty house
toys scattered around and
elephants painted on the walls
Yellow curtains hang on windowframes
daisies screenprinted, that once brought smiles

Tears are all that can come now
as she sits in a dark room, on a dark chair
hollowness consuming all that she knows
'Can't be gone, can't be gone.'
And nobody is there to comfort her

All that remains is a picture
a name engraved on a plate in the ground
an echo of laughter
and the shiny buttons of a war hero's pride
who never returned to see his child

She sits alone now, her
eyes are haunted, but when I asked her
of her lost love, her lost life
the child she had for so little time
all she can say is
'the hardest thing was driving to the funeral
alone.'