In the Quiet

Grief is love that lingers

in the corners of ordinary days,

gently humming

like the breath of the ocean

long after the tide has gone out.

It lives in the songs

we played too loudly,

in the photographs that make me laugh

before the ache returns.

It waits in the silence

on the drive home,

where I still speak to you

like you’re listening.

Some mornings, it comes gently—

a warm sunrise, coral—your favorite color—

threaded through the sky,

a reminder of you folded

into the fabric of the world.

Other days, it breaks like a storm—

sudden, electric, unyielding,

a rage that demands to be felt.

Grief is love,

learning to hear you in the quiet,

learning to find you

among the blooms…

and in the rise

of a salty ocean breeze.