Grief Outlasting the Time

Dad, the pangs of sorrows Pierced my Mom ceaselessly Like arrows in her heart, Caring and innocent, The day you left, years back, On your eternal journey Leaving us all behind. So much she loved you She knew not to overcome The grief that had laid her siege. Marked by her mourning That outlasted the time I have no words to tell you The anguish that was hers All her life after your depart. The day you left us Had seen her life come apart; Torn in shreds and pieces, She saw the polar winter darkness Set in the plains of her heart. The life had caved in, As the jaws of sorrow opened up To engulf her alive In their depthlessness unseen. The violence of pain and shock That shook my mother’s life Had struck me dumb As she wept over For days, months and years, In a soul rending way; Tears running in cascades Over her cheeks, day and night, She knew not how to stop, As all the desire to live Had ebbed out from her. Forty years have gone by Since that fateful day; My mother has also left us To join you in eternal peace. Still, my heart bleeds As I remember The day of your depart And the fountain of agony Sprung out of my mother's heart, To come dry Only at her depart. Standing alone in my thoughts And in my grief, I pay homage To the true love that was theirs To have let my mother keep alight The candle of her love That outlasting the time She had lit for my father Relentlessly all these years.