Sweetness

you say there is a sweetness to my grief—
tell me how.
you have not been the subject of her fits of anger.
you have not watched her strain to speak
the simplest words.
you have not felt the anxiety I do
going home for the first time in months,
praying she will still remember who I am.

there is nothing sweet about neurodegeneration—
watching as my mom,
my best friend in the world,
is slowly reduced to skin and bone,
unrecognizable.

come, sit with me in this grief
and then tell me how sweet it is.

---

Siena Falzon is a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at SOU. Her poetry reflects her exploration of grief, love, and loss.