When We Were Young (A Poem About Grief)

When We Were Young

When we were young,
We swung on swings and kicked our feet out into the stars.
We simply jumped, jumped out into the deep blue of the night
And stepped from star to star across the sky.
Swinging back and forth, back and forth, we leaped along the solar system
And we thought the world would welcome us with open arms.

*

When we were young,
We ran along the shoreline splashing, splashing the water
Sparkling in the moonlight and wetting our clothes.
We thought we could walk on water, our toes barely touching
Waves would rise, rise to meet us, and we’d bend time and space at our command
And we thought the world would welcome us with open arms.

*

When we were young,
We danced in fairy rings under the moonlight.
We held hands and circled, circled under the blazing starlight
And we laughed and felt magical and free and alive.
Something deep and mysterious danced among us
Filled us with light, light within and without, covering all we believed
And we thought the world would welcome us with open arms.

*

Then we grew up,
And I got a phone call one day that you were dead.
I saw you lying, lying in your casket, arrayed in blue
Blue like your eyes, the sky, the water, blue like our dreams.
Your empty smile was frozen, frozen on your face, cold and stiff
And I realized we were young no more.
And the world did not welcome us with open arms.

*

Now I grow old,
And you no longer walk beside me, kindred in all we dream.
But I must remember, remember the feeling of jumping into the sky
Of walking on the waters, of dancing in fairy rings.
The world tells me to reject those things, grief tells me to give up
Yet I will overcome, overcome slowly, over time
Someday turning back to the light within.

Photo by Adobe Stock/gilitukha