Grief/Rebirth
Sometimes, you crash into a concrete slab.
Going 200 m.p.h.
Facing a hellfire with no exit.
That’s the nature of grief.
Sometimes, an imaginary rat
gnaws your leg.
Constantly, every day.
Till you can’t see your lower limb.
That’s the nature of grief.
Over time, the hellfire dissipates.
The crashing sound disappears.
That’s the nature of rebirth.
Over time, the rat stops chewing.
The image of the leg reappears.
That’s the nature of rebirth.
What is the how?
From grief to rebirth?
It’s the battle of without and within.
Within means grief crushes the soul.
Without means rebirth appears.
The path to rebirth is emotions expressed.
Feelings shared to those who can help.
Learning to live anew is the journey to acceptance.
Acceptance is a coming to terms,
a being born again.
By Robert J. Mack
This poem contrasts the suffocating weight of grief with the gradual renewal of rebirth; through stark imagery—the hellfire, the gnawing rat—it reveals how suffering transforms over time into acceptance and the possibility of beginning again. Robert J. Mack is a widower and a board member of the National Widowers’ Organization.
