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Empathy Tides on Memory Shores

A stream of consciousness response to a powerful empathetic connection with a dear friend and their fear.


Separate lives
Separate experiences
Briefly
Somehow
In the space of one breath
Empathy connects

Numb anhedonia
Turns slowly insidious
Momentarily shared
Pale confusion
Dread known
Somehow understood
Language carries quiet terror

Empathy pressing
Empathy compressing
Anchor to past
Sinks hearts
Images inevitably fade
Dread quietly suffocates

Creeping dread
Choking tendrils
Drown me
Quiet dread
Drowns me
Intensity crests
Lungs stutter once
Heart stutters twice
Tide crawls out

Exhale
Blinking
The moment passes
Life tenuously resumes

Sunrises come
Sunsets pass

Wave returns unexpected
Words suddenly spill

All minds are flawed
All memories ephemeral
We must forgive ourselves
You must forgive yourself

The tide recedes again
Words in the sand remain

Their love is a part of you
Your love is a part of them
Enmeshed in the stars now
Stars see all

One day we will all be stars again
And stars forget nothing

Published inPoetryFree VerseFreewriting

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