May Their Memory Be for a Blessing
by Elke Weiss
When a loved one is gone, where did the love go?
It metastasized to grief that seems to feed and grow
Like a laser once focused, now a million points of light
My love is shattered but still burns hot and bright
The shards sharply puncture me straight to the heart
Jagged memories tear through and rip me apart
The empty cavities full with regrets and future joys denied
Grief devours my hopes from the inside
I look in the mirror and see the cracked wounds of pain
And I know I’ll never be truly whole again
When a loved one is gone, the love continues to flow
But now it’s like acid, and has no place where to go
I can weep by Babylon’s shores for burned temples now ash
Singing dirges on a world that was gone in a flash
The river won’t cool me, it’s salty hot tears
A murky swamp of pain that never clears
I can’t escape or go back, the past is now barred
Now I must face a future that feels impossibly hard
The chains bite my skin, a prisoner of grief’s iron hand
My journey to darkness, without a homeland
When a loved one is gone, where does the love go?
Sharp fragment and splinters and embers that glow
Of all the mourners, bent under love’s greatest cost
That all our beloveds someday must be lost
Each step that we walk, each callous and scar
Are the road back when we have lost who we are
Strengthens our resolve, makes our spines steel
We can be gloriously broken, though we’ll never heal
Like gold-mended pottery, we are beautifully made
Only enhanced by the cracks that will never fade
My loved one is gone, and I finally know
The terrible lesson that Death does bestow
The puzzle of life, the purpose, the plan
It’s not in our ability to truly understand
But bitterness of truth will open your eyes
That not everyone lives, although everyone dies
I will carry my grief but live to the fullest extent
So that others will miss me when my days are spent
Yes, my loved one is gone, to where I don’t know
But their love nourishes me and I continue to grow
It metastasized to grief that seems to feed and grow
Like a laser once focused, now a million points of light
My love is shattered but still burns hot and bright
The shards sharply puncture me straight to the heart
Jagged memories tear through and rip me apart
The empty cavities full with regrets and future joys denied
Grief devours my hopes from the inside
I look in the mirror and see the cracked wounds of pain
And I know I’ll never be truly whole again
When a loved one is gone, the love continues to flow
But now it’s like acid, and has no place where to go
I can weep by Babylon’s shores for burned temples now ash
Singing dirges on a world that was gone in a flash
The river won’t cool me, it’s salty hot tears
A murky swamp of pain that never clears
I can’t escape or go back, the past is now barred
Now I must face a future that feels impossibly hard
The chains bite my skin, a prisoner of grief’s iron hand
My journey to darkness, without a homeland
When a loved one is gone, where does the love go?
Sharp fragment and splinters and embers that glow
Of all the mourners, bent under love’s greatest cost
That all our beloveds someday must be lost
Each step that we walk, each callous and scar
Are the road back when we have lost who we are
Strengthens our resolve, makes our spines steel
We can be gloriously broken, though we’ll never heal
Like gold-mended pottery, we are beautifully made
Only enhanced by the cracks that will never fade
My loved one is gone, and I finally know
The terrible lesson that Death does bestow
The puzzle of life, the purpose, the plan
It’s not in our ability to truly understand
But bitterness of truth will open your eyes
That not everyone lives, although everyone dies
I will carry my grief but live to the fullest extent
So that others will miss me when my days are spent
Yes, my loved one is gone, to where I don’t know
But their love nourishes me and I continue to grow
Elke Weiss is a native New Yorker and proudly so. She is a real estate attorney author/blogger with degrees in urban planning, law, and history. In addition to her own blogging, she co-writes for Martial Journal and Black Belt Magazine on the topics of self-defense and Krav Maga. She also volunteers for Families for Safe Streets, an advocacy group for those who have lost loved ones to car crashes. Elke is working on her first novel, based on her time volunteering with wounded veterans.