What Once Was Poem by RoseAnn V. Shawiak

Sorrow silenced by tears, drowning and taking me floating
down the river of grief where death holds onto the ones
I love, not letting go.

Stepping quietly into the space of it's dominance, taking
the heart of my mind into particles of my being that mani-
fest themselves in a volume of emptiness where there's no
life.

Stepping into the wide open area of death's beginning,
holding my breath, watching as life slowly escapes, giving
a lasting and total impression of what once was.

No longer able to stand in measures of time, loneliness
and silent grief appear, as tears continue to fall into
the pool of my interior being.

Without every having any respect at all for how it makes
me feel in the long run, floating into the reservoir of
sorrow keeping me forever saddened.