Renee Writes

All I saw was twisted sorrow under these tall trees,
tears of grief splashed on the ground.
My ears filled with the reverberating echoes of all
the goodbyes that happened here.

So many gravestones –
Row after row, like scars
marking the wounds of
unbearable loss.

But today when I looked up from
my own tender place,
I saw something else.

Monuments from humble to grand,
stand in testimony –
but not to sorrow.
Even the unmarked resting places
were blessed and made holy
with the words whispered or cried aloud:
I will love you forever.

Love has been poured into this place over and over again.
It is written in stone:
Beloved mother
Beloved father
Beloved son
Beloved daughter.
These people lived and were loved.
And so, they were cradled into the earth’s
loamy embrace,
and the place claimed as theirs forevermore.
Love placed here is permanent.

Today I looked out across the cemetery
and saw it.
I saw love.