What Is Grief? Poem by Liz Motter

What is grief?
It's not just sadness.
It's rage and loss.
Loss so imminence that it seems to consume.
Rage so complete that it burns whatever's left in the void.
Grief is guilt and pain and sorrow.
It's curling in on yourself at 2 in the morning because it feels like your collapsing from within.
It's lying, immobile, because if you move then you move on, and you don't want to forget.
Grief is that blank stare and those empty eyes and that fake smile.
It's looking and being unable to see past the darkness.
It's hearing and being unable to hear anything past the dull, white noise that surrounds you.
It's seeing love and kindness and happiness and being unable to understand because you can't imagine what that would feel like anymore.
That is grief.