Day 27: The Cute Little Redheaded Girl

How can they say
"You will mourn and then
you will get on with your life"
when your life
           has been
                         cauterized
and what your brain tells you
("she's in a better place,
  free of suffering and pain")
doesn't reach your heart
("but I need her still!"
  it screams)

And
"Time heals all wounds"
is a fallacy when
the wound
     is an excision
         of the core
              of your world.

Drinking Star of India tea 
from Mary's cup

So the cute little red-headed girl

gathers up all the well-meaning advice

and writes it down

on one of her lists 

and budgets her life

on what she has left

And as the minutes

and the days

and the months



and the years

tick away

She will slowly come to find

that what she has left

is what she is -

the essence of Mary

but with some new subtlety

     added to it:

She offers her own essence

 to the Parfumier

      who is blending the two

in such a way

     that the new result

is a gift from

mother to daughter

a tribute from

daughter to mother,

And the cute little red-headed girl

  will find that

the new, whole fragrance is indeed more

 than the sum of

    its parts

And that what she has left

is enough.