Tissue Box

like visitors from outer space they came with tears, and lined the sidewalk long in face, and arms embracing some (I have no inkling) who they were or why they felt compelled to come dozens came with casseroles a few with flowers, wads of tissues tender words of helpless mutterings many acts of generous offerings don't get me wrong, I watched the suffering expressed in words or acts of kindness I watched it all, and felt the love did not dismiss the warm compassion returned it all, with pure compliance a thankful heart, a swollen throat I hugged these strangers at the door to comfort them, who shed their tears upon my shoulder, offered them a place to share their sympathies a place to spend their mercy, pure but, this was my child who loved and lost impossible........I can't express it protected from the very start, by loving hands, her dad's and mine, we watched her grow, and let her go she grew from the vine ....into a rose but life composed a tragedy, with goals beyond our reach...beyond belief beyond our wildest dreams and left her with a loss beyond control like visitors from outer space, we watch as others come, and others go they blow into their tissue wads and empty the boxes one by one and cry with us, and then they all go home... do we cry........? Oh no, not yet... instead we smile a grateful smile and thank them kindly for the while and for the ways they share their love but we can't cry into our own clenched wad of tissue from the tissue box she needs us to be strong, somehow and so that is the way it is, we vow...to hold back all the tears for now for, this was my child who loved and lost impossible........I can't express it __________________________________________ 4/12/13