GRIEF Poem: A Lesson on Grief, by Nikema Bell

I watched cancer
chew my neighbor
like a stray dog
worrying a lone bone.
It stripped him hollow,
left him light as dust.

When he could work,
he carried fruit,
tore flowers by the root
for the yards he served.
Now my grief grows rough,
callused where his hand once passed a peach.

Near death,
he cried of heat.
I fanned him,
as if I could keep hell out
as if the wind in my wrist
could scare off the dark.
But grief has no mercy,
only lessons,
and I keep learning
this is not about m

Author: poetryfest

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