Black Sheep Brainchild

Grief –

Like a ratty old blanket, grief settles around me, an old comforting friend. It has been there for so long that to live without it seems almost foreign. Sometimes I barely notice it, numb to its texture in my life. At other times I cling to it, longing for any sort of feeling, remembering the past with a bittersweetness in my soul.

But there are times it wraps around my neck, strangling me, encasing my body. Suffocating. I am overwhelmed with the intense heat and yet somehow ice cold.

It moves on its own, a living entity, drawing close and retreating to the distance as it chooses. Taunting. Toying.

You learn tools to help keep it at bay, treats to throw and placate it, fending it off like a wild animal on the prowl, caging it until it finds a way to escape again.

But sometimes, you simply need to sit with it. Embrace it. Feel it.

And then it drifts away into the distance once again.

-Taliyn Marie