Margaret Eckman
Grief
For Deahn
The wave crashes over you,
pounds you flat, fills your
eyes, your nose, your mouth
with bitter salt, tumbles and
batters you, grinds you into
a pain so intense you swear
you'll never draw breath again.
There is no comfort to give
that can support you through this.
Each heart breaks alone.
But remember we who wait, banished
beyond the wave line, our hands ready
to reach out and help you rise, our arms
waiting to wrap around you, hold you
until the next breaker hits.
Bio
An editor by trade, Margaret Eckman has come to love the rigor poetry demands—telling a complete story in a few short lines. Her poems have appeared in Art in the Time of Covid, Aurorean, Broadkill Review, Corbel Stone Press's Contemporary Poetry Series, Eastern Iowa Review, Ekphrastic Review, Nantucket Magazine, Wild Word, and other publications.