Chasm of Loss

By: Rochelle Rickoff Wilensky

There will always be

This chasm that exists

Between my familial expectations

And what actually is.  

I stone ground myself into a bowl of grits

To try and make her happy.

I thought of her feelings before mine.

Always.

I jumped to action with each plea for help,

Inevitably followed by her cold, angry distance

After she got what she wanted.

But one day, after 20 years of one-way kinship,

I realized that

There’s a word for this.

And that it’s ok to walk away.

The hole will always be there,

But in its place now grows light

And joy.