We walk among the wounded
The lost
The broken bodied
The broken hearted
On the best of our sunny days
We pass by the deserted
The abandoned
The betrayed
We choose our evasions carefully
Not there, with the friend whose husband has left
for reasons that are doomed to fail
Another chance to evade age, time
Illness, boredom
Not here, facing the pain in a brother’s eyes
His aloneness
His frail breath
His tired heart
His broken cry
Sorrow is contagious
We will one day catch it
We know what waits for us
We know we cannot stop it
All endings are transitions
People who are not in sorrow tell us
To hold on
They say better is coming
They say we will heal
Maybe even forget
But we cannot forget the others
No matter how hard we try
No matter how fast we run
No matter how far away we get
They are with us
In us
Next to us
In spite of us
Waiting for us
Waiting for us
To comfort us,
Because they have walked here, too.