I am numb—
Serene sea.
One walks in and
Offers condolence—
A drop that sends ripples
Across me.
Then come the tidal waves
Of reality
Crashing against my being.
I attempt to reply
But tears rise and choke me.
I inhale to calm down.
But the stormy sea knows no bounds.
I go under—
Drowning the illusion of restraint,
Once again.
I turn to hide
Lest the world may see
What a wreck
You have made of me.
Wait until the numbness returns.
And I’ll, again, be the serene sea.
Photo by Joshua Qualls at Unsplash
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Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 
You correctly say that sometimes only numbing gives us a relief. A poor long term solution, but good now and then.
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Thank you! I always thought it was just me. But now i can see that i’m not alone in feeling this way about loss.
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Not at all.
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I wonder how ants cope with this? now there’s a poem waiting to be written :)
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Best of luck for that one! :D Don’t let them drown.
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wonderful and so relevant to my life now. I’m putting up a post tomorrow about a similar experience though it is with an organization not a person
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Wow! John. Thank you. I have not lost the person via death but my divorce 12 years back…it did the same to me. Specially since I was crazily in love with someone who didn’t love me enough to have married you. Not that I blame him anymore. Life has taught me to become the serene sea, Until…
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that’s wonderful; there is always an ‘until’ :(
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