GRIEF Poem: Monologue, by Geddy Ridgeway

How exciting
Deciding to live
Persevere

Parsing your story
Extracting any purpose
Still choosing to probe

The right to life
Implies the inverse
Though that seems so frightening

To extend contemplation
Beyond familiarity
How daunting

What a pity
Living as a passenger
When action is at your fingertips

Decisiveness
That’s courage
Exploring untamed wilderness

We recognize the unknown’s silence
But destiny is alluring
Both to me and the man at the helm

Potential, promise, temptation
That’s what draws me in
But I don’t dare venture further

A self-fulfilling prophecy
I return to that final stage
Though I stand at the edge––trembling

While I’m not set on permanent solution
I’m familiar with her effects
Seducing lost minds into a facade of control

Warm baths numb the pain
Stories told in a few lines
Scan her arms for a memoir

Possibilities are endless
Yet I’m still too shy to meet them
Hopefully I’ll stay timid

I’ve settled on indecision
Not for lack of trying
Life just seems insurmountable

We keep enduring
Not in search of purpose
But in resigned acceptance of her absence