How?

How does one grieve

when there has been

no absolute severance,

no death? I wilt, I break,

but I cannot die

to this. Thus, the dying

proceeds for another day.

And another. Another.

The knife blade is serrated,

the cut jagged and

disconsolate.

I weep over the loss

but cannot figure out how

to lose, nor to stanch

the steady drip of

blood, of heart.

--Susan Adams Kauffman