Every so often life
requires you to swim
through a lake of pain
where feet don’t touch the bottom
where light is muted by inky blackness
where hearts tremble in anguish
and breaths are too distraught
to follow each other
But swim – we must
through this lake of pain
-for a welcome shore awaits-
where feet hug the comforting earth
where darkness is replaced by memories
and occasional tears keep dead spirits alive

This is deaths pathway for the living
We swim….we survive
wiping tears …as we cry

Such is death
such is life

©Vivian Zems

Poetry Pantry #402