On Sorrow

These last few weeks have been difficult

abraded by the cold tapwater mornings

the watery sunless afternoons and all

the beads of bad news which hang heavy

together, all this buffeting by failure, by

failed promises and failed expectations

yes, these things happen, and they have

happened now. You are torn for a while

by disappointments, by the loss of long-

held imaginings. We all are, sometimes.

Still, there is a cat sleeping in a slant

of sunlight; there is a flock of girls on

the green, a windless fall of snow, and

a film you want to see in the cinema.

Shake out from the cloth of the month

those few hours that troubled you

and let them fall. Take comfort.

They are no longer in your future.

They can never hurt so much again.