I used to think that ‘processing’ meant lessening

unravelling, compacting, release

~~~~

but for those awful, painful things,

it is the vessel that expands instead,

not the grief becoming less

~~~~

Our outsides look the same, but within

and if we let it, our heart first grows a bubble,

then box, then a tent, then a building and so on

and so forth, that better holds the ache

~~~~

This slowly happens over time

and more of that than we’d wish,

but space develops to hold, to handle,

to cope with that original troublesome wound

~~~~

eventually creating scope to allow in

many other things, good things, strong things

that mingle and mix and make the aching less

and lets the sun shine in

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–grief and pain take time, but the light will find its way in

~~~~

Heather Pound 2022