A Day in the Life

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Sat, 01 Mar 2014
  • 910 reads
7 comments
 
Ran into someone the other day hadn’t seen for ages;
definitely not since...
 
How are those two delightful girls of yours? she says.
 
My heart skips a beat.  A situation I’d always dreaded;
catching me unawares, expert as I’d become 
in hiding my feelings.  
 
They must be all grown up by now.  Let me see... Sophie,
wasn’t it, the eldest? And...
 
I interrupt.
 
She died, six years ago last New Year’s Eve, actually.
She was a beautiful girl, and we all miss her
so very much.
 
The colour drains from her cheeks, and she looks like
she might faint.  I hug her, my cheek wet with her tears.
 
I had a brush with death, myself, she says. Breast cancer
but they caught it in time.
 
And I picture whoever’s up there, 
and wonder how they decide...
and why not her?
 
Look...she says, as if she’d read my mind, 
I know this doesn’t compare with your loss, but
I lost my old lab last week, crippled with arthritis,
she was, but she meant to world to me.
 
And then she sobbed, and there I was, thinking I
had a monopoly on grief...
Certificate PG
Poem
Love
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by VeraClark on

This broke me. 

I've come back to it now. There's a monopoly on death  -  always a story pulled out the bag, a not quite the same experience, but still - see - I've got compassion and empathy, I know of world's blown apart. It's like a strange compulsion humans have on hearing of insurmountable loss. Some may say a coping mechanism, others say shockingly poor manners. A dog story, though?It doesn't rest easy with me. Told so casually, Tina, so lightly.

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Vera - you tell it like it is, so very well.

Tina

 

Submitted by Bee on

There's an all round honesty to your writing here, Tina  -  'wonder how they decide...and why not her?' Ludicrous as it was for her to try to in any way compare her grief with your loss, you grant us the information that hers is recent and still raw, which doesn't excuse the lack of manners, but could explain the blubbing. Even so, how insensitive of her. Absolutely unbelievable!

I'm pressing the 'like button' too.

 

 

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Many thanks, Bee.  Much appreciated.

Tina

 

Submitted by Denzella on

Hello Tina,

As a lifelong dog lover I see things a little different to the others though I recognise the woman's insensitivity by comparing her loss with yours because your cheeks are wet with her tears but still you have the compassion to comfort her.  That speaks volumes to me. .

Moya

 

Submitted by Linda Wigzell Cress on

The bitter irony of this piece brought tears to my eyes Tina.  The insensitivity of the other person for the deeper than deep hurt of the loss of a child, alongside the almost involuntary compassion of the narrator for her misfortunes  is beautifully written, perfectly illustrating the total confusion and sorrow of terrible life events. Grief is unfathomable.

Linda

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Moya - everyone thinks differently, as you say, depending on their situation, circumstances, etc. etc; the point I endeavoured to make in my poem.  Your insight speaks volumes to me, too.  Thanks, so very much.

Tina