The moment has a terrible clarity
a knife slices though the heart
a helpless hemorrhage
a sudden vertigo
disbelief, this can\'t be!
A sudden need to turn back the clock,
to start again,
to re-enact the fateful hour
with a happy ending.
But pain invades
in a procession of needles
that puncture the frantic denials
followed by sterile choices:
to run to the safe lap
of a predictable mother,
or offer useless tears
on a silent altar.
Then fear, anger, self-loathing
entangle all thoughts
paralyze all goodness,
until time takes pity
and offers the slow healing
of blessed forgetting,
that in days to come
will make the heart whole,
ready to recklessly
love again.