Coral Sunrise

Some friendships shape who we are. Even after they’re gone, their memory stays with us in familiar songs, quiet moments, and small reminders that love lasts. Coral Sunrise is my tribute to my best friend, Kara, whose presence I still find in the beauty around me and whose absence I feel every day.

Coral Sunrise

Grief is love that lingers
in the corners of ordinary days,
like the soft hush of the ocean
long after the tide has gone.

It lives in the songs
we played too loudly,
in photographs that make me laugh
before the ache returns.

It waits in the silence
of the drive home,
where I still speak to you.

Some mornings, it arrives gently—

A coral sunrise,
your favorite color
woven through the sky,
a reminder of you stitched
into the fabric of the world.

Other days, it breaks like a storm—

Sudden,
electric,
unyielding—
a grief that arrives
uninvited.

Even then,
I find you
in the hush between waves,
and in the rise
of a salt-worn ocean breeze.

Grief is love,
learning a new language—
one spoken in quiet things.