Sweet Sorrow

Sweet Sorrow

Sorrow is such a sweeter truth than joy
Its sibling sister
Beautiful in its constancy and power to move
The more grievously it wounds
The more
our living hearts
It glorifies
guiding gentle firm
Into
Our nights.

Steel cuts rapacious clean
Draws blood that dries
In time.
The frothy excesses of joy
Leave you wanting
When the cup runs dry.

Nay leave that chalice
You drunk to the lees
Not a drop is left
Drop it down
Fresh owners shall
Refill it
No claims or legacies
At the fountain of life.

The little boat you disembarked
Long  ago
or an instant back
bobbing on the waves
It arrives.

Joy is the bouyancy of life
Sorrow it's boundaries.

One makes us feel impossible lightness and brightness
But the other makes us
See impossible strength
Glowing in the dark

Gruesome flowers of madness
Personalized
Death by delivery
At our doorsteps
Post marked
Sorrow
Elegaic remembrance.

Do you think
Joy
Would have any meaning?
Without horrific steps to surmount
Stepping over the chests
Of the unburied
Dead
In your heart?

Kali
weaves
our skulls supine into her
Black night hair
Studding
Night stars of memories
Into jealous tresses
black waves
Of oblivion.

She dances
In
Fanatic frenzies

Our
Choric gibbering
Of mourning
A perverted gibberish
Background chorus
To loss.

Our
Whole lives
Are lived in arenas
Flexing our muscles
In faux courage
Till
The last dance
To the strains of burning violins
Makes us prick up our ears and live
Real and
Complete.

I'm not ashamed of
Sorrow
She keeps me company
When all I have
Left
Is me.

I shall hold your hand
Without fear
To cross the final creek
Bidding
Countries of cousin joy
Light farewell
In sweet sorrow
Abiding.

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(c) Amrita Valan 2014