The twin nature of a wound is healing
and reminding. The same scar that means
“it’s over” recalls that the hard dead spot
at its centre was once alive to feeling.
People worry about remembering
as they push aside what remains,
as if “getting over it” made the thought
of what happened into an obstacle,
but anyone who’s lost anything, even
a torn stuffed bear, knows loss is the vestibule
to a parallel universe inside grieving,
where all who were lost still seem living.
Now we have to live with a scar, a strange
benumbed place we reenter as we change.
~ from The Second Blush (W.W. Norton & Co, 2008)
