The terror we can agree upon,

I don’t know if I have to include it here.

It hums in the background in the room where you sit,

it writhes between the lines of everything I have ever written.

Grief and despair,

to speak of it feels redundant.

A laugh is a light turned on in a dark room where the restless sleep.

Joy feels inconsiderate.

Yet it is the most important thing,

the only sustenance for this long journey,

the only words I wish to sing over the drone of loss.

So I will tell you while you are here,

I have so much to smile at the stars about.

I am eating fresh bread baked by new love,

I am writing a get well card,

I am hanging flowers to dry,

I am teasing a friend and we are laughing.

Even now,

even here,

all of the things that have ever made life worth living

sing like crystal bells from every corner of my heart.