Tuesday Poem: "Twin Sorrows"

For Mere

Beneath your quiet grace

I’ve always sensed a power

of purpose

and peaceful strength

but here a chance encounter

a chance enquiry

on Courtenay Place

finds it is more than the wind buffets you

there is fragility shimmering in your smiling eyes

shards of sorrow

twined

loss of a life anticipated

loss of a love separated

we explore all the permutations

torture ourselves with all the possibilities

all the “what if”s

pour down that ever-darkening funnel

to emerge as a single drop of pain

crystallised as “why?”

and I reach out the hand of support

offer some words of consolation

but in the face of your twin sorrows

these well-intentioned gestures feel ineffectual

tossed away in the wind

howling through your heart