A Memory of Light

We will let go of grief,

its uneven harmonic of pain,

or perhaps it will leave us,

though what will precipitate the release

we may not know -

only that darkness bent suddenly

into a different shape,

absence became more

than incomprehension,

and our heart settled back

into its allotted space.

There are things we do know:

that parts of the body

come in twos,

as if we started life

folded in half.

that we live

with twinned sides of brain

and heart,

two legs, two arms, two eyes,

but even so,

the left shoe will not fit

the right foot,

compensation for any loss

remains just that,

and to some questions

there never will be answers

that satisfy us.

Tides and moon move

according to immutable rules,

as love does,

in spite, or perhaps because of,

anything we try to do,

and what we are left with,

in the midst of darkness

and the company of ghosts,

is amazement

that darkness contains a memory of light

that can bend us back

into our former shape.