~It Is About~

By WordWulf, 23rd Jan 2011 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1no2vbpu/
Posted in Wikinut>Writing>True Stories

~It Is About acceptance ~ what you were is what we are & what we will always be ~ good love & sharing~

~It Is About~

My daughter, Harley Blue, worked at a party store that sold greeting cards. One Sunday afternoon she saw a woman going through cards, sad and weeping. She went to help her and the lady explained that her seventeen-year-old niece had committed suicide and she hoped to find a card to give her family, maybe something that would help her understand and convey her terrible sadness to her sister. Harley Blue told her they had nothing like that in the store but that her father was a poet and she was sure he could write something for her to take to the funeral.

I was proud that my daughter had such faith in me but overwhelmed by the task she set before me. I was afraid I might upset these people in their hour of terrible sorrow. A single parent with five children, my heart went out to these people and I certainly didn't want to worsen their pain. My daughter had given her word and, after a couple of days of wrangling with words, "It Is About" was born. To my great relief it was accepted graciously by the family. The lady sent me a thank-you message stating that I had put into words what they all felt but couldn't say. "It Is About" went on to be published in Long Island Sounds 2006 (anthology of poetry) and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2006.

It is About
It is about tomorrow, all the tomorrow moments we will live without you. You are there all the more because you are gone. It is about forgiving... you, for shocking the peace of our living, taking yourself from us, for not understanding how very much we needed... you.

It is about your pain, the pieces, apart from our sharing, the path your sweet steps would follow. It is about our guilt, our inability to comprehend your depth, the closed walls you had made, the doors we never heard closing.

It is about goodbye, the salt in the tear on your cheek, the soft breath of your living, no waving hand, no parting kiss, just goodbye. It is about acceptance; what you were is what we are. And what you will always be, the good love and times we shared. It is about you, Child.

Meet the author

WordWulf
Tom Sterner lives in Redding, California and Arvada, Colorado with wife Kathy. He has been published in numerous magazines and on the internet, including Howling Dog Press/Omega, Skyline Literary Review, The Storyteller, and Flashquake. His interne...(more)