We love you, Ms. Harris!

When we lose someone we love,
Our life becomes strange,
The ground beneath us gets fragile,
Our thoughts make our eyes unsure;
And the loss drags our voices down
Where words have no confidence.

Our hearts grow heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded us
No one knows what has been taken from each of us
When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret
For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when we wake up happy;
And inside the fullness of life,
Until the moment breaks
And we are thrown back
Onto the black tide of loss.

Days when we have our hearts back,
We are able to function well
Until the middle of work or encounter,
Suddenly with no warning,
We are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust ourselves
All we can depend on now
Is that sorrow will remain.
Sorrow knows the right time
To loosen the coiled rope of grief
And lets go its last tear drop.

Gradually, we will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of our departed;
And when the work of grief is done
The wound of loss will heal
And we will have learned to accept

That gap in outer life
And be able to enter the warmth

In each heart
Where our loved one remains.

We all love and miss you, Ms. Harris.