She needs a hare to fill the missing blocks
She needs a guide to help avoid the flock
A lover a reminder that’s she’s never alone
A comedian to get a laughter’s loan
A sick Santa to not gift tears on missed birthdays
A lullaby to swift sleepily from yesterday
She needs a hare to brush as mom rides the highs
A hairy being when no human beings is neigh

A fat hare eating rabbit food like her skinny dad
A big cheeks hare like his cheeks when mad
A friend for the bereaved until his death clarify
She needs a hare to stop her from asking why.

There can never be a realisation,
The loss is too profound; too permanent.
They closed your eyes in front of me, you died 10 years ago, yet I always remember it as the year before last;
I fear I shall feel this loss all my mortal life.
Your devoted child X

I am part of your smile today.
I might be in the curl of your lip,
In the corner glint of your eyes;
Or the concave of a dimple.

I will trip across your tongue today
When you speak of plans;
I will be today's man,
Clear the wreckage from the storm,
The tempest that began your day,
Reminding you we too were young.

When on your morning walk,
You might feel my hand slip in
And be with you awhile,
In your thoughts and smiles.

To life, to love, to loss, to absent friends,
to every emptiness we cannot fill:
November’s started.  Let’s hope this one ends.

Everybody knows, yet each pretends
that one can shape the world around one’s will.
To life, to love, to loss, to absent friends,

A wall imprisons all that it defends.
I’ll watch you from my tower on the hill.
November’s started.  Let’s hope this one ends.

We all know what the prophecy portends:
a crow, a wedding ring, a poison pill.
To life, to love, to loss, to absent friends.

The breathing labours, and the heart descends;
a final rattle before all is still.
November’s started.  Let’s hope this one ends.

You must accept, though no one comprehends,
the knowledge all great tragedies instil.
To life, to love, to loss, to absent friends:
November’s started.  Let’s hope this one ends.

Sometimes hearts
break in specific ways,
we will apply bandages
but the scars will form vivid,
worn by us all as memory
that the best burn bright
but brief

You’re in our blood and marrow
guiding us each beat,
but more

through oral histories
smoothed by years and the telling
around later dinner tables
with warm wine smiles
sharp edges and harsh, too-sharp clarity
burnished and buffed away,

as our minds turn over each recollection
we feel the warm glow of worn gold
to hold us, linger-hugged,
or ride the swelling tide from a fabled talisman
as we channel your strength
to stand up to them

or we might laugh recalling pompous brass buttons
‘til stitch given tears pour
at the tenderness of your
remembered buffoonery
where wisdom dressed up daft
and sang stupid songs to love us

The power of grief is crazy,
The price we pay for love.
You were here with me once,
And now you’re somewhere above.
How can this have happened,
It’s like a ******* hole.
Like someone has come and taken,
All the happiness from my soul.
I suppose at the time you were taken,
I didn’t actually realise.
The impact this would have on me,
More than just tears in my eyes.
So many things you’ve missed,
Where I wish you were by my side.
Everything feels so lonely now,
All because you’ve died.
I hope that you are watching,
And I hope that you are proud.
But now I am left carrying round,
This huge heavy black cloud.
The cloud is called grief,
The price I’ve paid for love.
Now I will try my best for you,
Until I join you up above.
So wait for me in heaven,
Or wherever you are.
But now I will have to continue,
Loving you from afar.

The rain surrounds me
With whispers of empathy

My brother came up to collect our mother’s ashes.
At the same time, he dropped off her old vacuum cleaner.
I don’t know why exactly.
I hadn’t asked for it and didn’t need it;
I guess it would have been a waste to just get rid of it.
The thing is, 
it hadn’t been emptied, 
and for some reason that 
broke me 
all over again.

That grimy little time capsule.
That cyclone technology urn.
Contents:
Dust of a home you can never go back to;
Fur of a cat now settled with a new owner;
Dead cells of a dead woman.

Remains.