Falling in love is great, but falling out sucks. It's more like being crushed out than "falling". Felt like death to me when that relationship died. Although it took me six or seven years to really get over it, I knew from the beginning that I would, I knew I would have to figure out a lot of stuff along the way, and I wished I didn't have to take that road all the way through. Looking back, I'm glad I did; looking forward from that point was like going through a long, slow, painful death.
The beloved passes into eternity
and the widowed grieve.
One thrashes and wails,
another gives their speech into silence.
The promises were vain.
Grief comes with union.
With life, an end to life.
The cost of love is separation
from that which is closest.
Ignore the fools who say,
"It will be alright."
What do they know of love?
No one who feels this desolate
trades fidelity
for lukewarm consolation.
No amount of heartfelt sympathy
fills this void.
If not You, only the absence of You!
The day dawns that knows of something beyond death.
Before that, though, death.
I know this but can't help myself.
Closer than closest is us.
Here, gone, or something else entirely,
it is your face I see
in every face.
You wanted me to go on living.
Forgive my weakness, if it is weakness.
Without You, I go on dying.
Copyright 2007 Todd Mertz