eighty one

When You Meet Someone Deep In Grief

Slip off your shoes

and set them by the door

Enter barefoot,

this darkened chapel

hollowed by loss,

hallowed by sorrow.

its grey stone walls

and floor

You, congregation

of one

Are here to listen,

not to sing.

Kneel in the back pew,

make no sound

Let the candles

speak.

by Patricia Mckernon Runkle