Stolen Breath

Stolen breath

Nothing left

When solid ground is torn away

And the open space

Breeds terror of loss

Uncovering a death scape

Within which your heart is squeezed

As memory after memory

Rises and then recedes

Tearing a fissure open

From beneath

Floating up

Precious times in distant past

Never fully realised

Remind you of how precarious is destiny

And how fleeting happiness

And with the weight of these

It feels at times that you will never breathe again

Or feel the lightness of a life

Of gentle ease

Can you ride through

And bear the contractions of this scheme

Of life’s next stage unfolding

Because when breath is stolen

Its a sure sign

That grief again is near

Demanding of you surrender

Undoing and transformation

And perhaps we will never feel equal to this

Until our souls

Have finally endured

The passing through a narrow gate

That leads us over shaky ground

To an as yet unformed

Uncertain destiny