The Gift of Loss

What is it that you were given?

--Em Claire

What is it that you were given?

I mean from the loss.

After, what was taken.

That very thing you could not live without.

The person or place;

the secret or circumstance—

now that it is gone,

or has been found out,

and you can no longer call it foundation

what is it that you were given?

You know, and I know, this:

there is a hollowing out.

Something comes and opens you up

right

down

the

middle

and from that moment on

you are no longer immune to this world.

You wake, you wander,

every familiar, now a foreign.

You walk as though through water

until you make it back to your bed

and finally, even there—

your sheets; your own pillow’s scent different,

as if daily someone repaints your room, displacing something,

disturbs a cherished memento.

You see,

sometimes we are emptied.

We are emptied

because

Life wants us to know

so

much

more

Light.