What I have learned about grief...

  Last week, NPR asked its listeners to submit a poem what started with  the line above...

   What I have learned about grief..
           Is that  grief won't pass you by
even if you act like you're on the phone
          or studiously avoid making
 eye contact with his scabby visage.

     He will be at every stop sign
           on the sidewalk
will tug at your pants leg
      wanting his heavy slumping
weight to be picked up.

   Try to ignore him and it will be
like hitting your shin
 on a ball hitch,
or slicing your finger
    when you cut lemons.
but all the time and every time


You have to sit with him
       on the porch when
you watch your neighbors
   ride their bikes,
hold hands, and
       play horse on
 their driveway.

He will ride shotgun
 when you go to work
and cry with you
  in the parking lot
     
Grief is an imaginary friend
   that nobody wants
but everybody gets.