Grief and Writing

My brother passed away on May 15, 2018. He is my third brother to pass from illness. We were five siblings. Now we are two. I started writing a poem after Fran died. I worked on it almost every day, and couldn't get through it.

My father passed away yesterday, July 29, 2018. I finished the poem today. I never post writings that haven't been read by an editor or member of my critique group, Artemis Rising. But I am posting this because I don't know what else to do.

Grief

by Eileen Albrizio

In dark of night, unseen by living things,

she weaves a web with silken strands of grief

that spreads across the attic like the wings

of dragonflies: the workings of a thief

who targets mourners trying to persist

each hour without the ones they love. We're just

survivors of death's casualties, who missed

the touch of one who renders life to dust.

I am among them, laden in my gloom,

existing in a garret without light.

I feel the grief that hangs inside this room.

It clings to lashes, flesh. With all my might

I try to swipe away the deep despair

but still feel death is crawling through my hair.