I pray for the living when someone has died

I pray for the living when someone has died

For the living must go on when they want to hide

I pray for the living when someone has died

The love goes on, but no longer is there pride

For there is much to do and so little time

And yet the time seems to crawl by

As conflicting feelings well up and pry

Open all the pain and joy that no longer is mine.

I pray for the living when someone has died

For the living must go on when they want to hide.

The AP reported the world news: In Turkey masked gunman killed 44 at a wedding including the bride and groom, but two girls survived when their slain friends fell on top of them. I cried for people I don’t know. How could a day that is supposed to be filled with such hope and joy be destroyed.

The AP reported that 5 were killed in Pakistan by a suicide bomber; lives laid waste by false beliefs that the God of love would honor people who destroy themselves and others. Tears well up for the families of those who won’t see their loved ones coming home.

The number of dead from the swine flu is diminishing. The world took the pandemic fears seriously. I read a blog of someone who claimed the swine flu was overrated. Sometimes damned if you do or don’t. Because people took the CDC seriously and prevented exposure and washed thoroughly and we didn’t lose 200,000 people as in the early 1900s then we are overreacting? I don’t think so. We escaped a disaster of staggering proportions. And for everyone who died there is a family or group of friends left behind.

When I was nine I lost my dad and I began a poem that I finished when I was older. Still the parts of pain that a 9 year old understood amaze me today. Profound.