touched by sadness

Someone I know from here (some would say I didn't really know, but whatever) posted about their neighbor (someone I really do not know) losing their child. She was 3 months old and half of a set of twins. The loss was apparently unexpected (as if any loss, expected or otherwise, is easier than another.) Any time you hear such news of sadness and are not somehow touched, you have passed beyond your own humanity. Part of being a human being is to be touched by the sadness and suffering of all humanity. I fully realize there is cruelty and misery in this world that I will never see, hear, or know about, and can do even less about it. However, we are all made less if we do not care about the suffering of others and if we do not have some place in us that wishes to alleviate that suffering in some way. When I hear about it in places I cannot reach, I send my prayers. Some will say that this is just my way of alleviating my sadness and frustration. I say, "Whatever." You think what you wish and I will believe what I wish.

Anyway, in the middle of the night when I read the post, I wrote this:

Goodbye too soon

How do you say goodbye so soon after saying hello?
How do you ever again look into the eyes of a child and not see them?
How will you ever hear a child’s laugh or cry and not hear them?
How do you walk past a swing ever again without seeing them?
How do you see a bike with training wheels without seeing them?
How do you drive by a school at classes end without seeing them?
How do you look at prom dresses or tuxedos without seeing them?
How do you think about a wedding without seeing them?

It is really over simple to say
And very difficult to imagine doing
But, you don’t
They will live in your heart forever
They will at times travel to your imaginings
They will try to escape a bit in your tears
But there will always be plenty of them inside

No one can truthfully tell you they know how you feel
Most cannot even imagine, even if we wanted to, how it feels
Even less are those who can relate
Less even than these, are those that can empathize
And there is one who can see inside your heart
Can see your pain and the depth of it
Can hear the cries that don’t make it out of your lips
Can see the tears that don’t make it to your cheeks
Can hear the words you only scream in your mind

He will be your strength
He will be your courage
He will be your faith
He will be your believing

I will not insult you by pretending to know the answer
While I may know many answers
I do not know the answer to that question
I will never be able to truthfully tell you “why?”
I will try to say the smooth soothing words
I will speak with all the gentleness I can muster
I will hold your hand
I will cry with you

When your day becomes tomorrow
And tomorrow moves on to other tomorrows
Sadness moves on to dullness
And dullness moves into acceptance
You will learn to say goodbye
Too soon

Ron Simpson, Jr.
March 25, 2009