Naked Grief

If worse comes to worst, then it’s all been for nothing

Photo by Kindel Media

Leave me bereft on the surf
and I’ll sail on, far from here
to where we few wretched go
near-bouts flotsam and ruin.

Don’t ask me about the wound
with eyes that already know
it will scar and calcify
in a day or a decade,

or this vessel will decay.
It’s just a scratch anyway,
but you seek to sanitize,
and don’t dare ask this of me,

pressing this grim folly of
tracing spaces you once filled,
quantifying said losses
upon those fancy papers,

end-dated and notarized,
legally binding this one
to a soul’s final wishes,
speaking the unspeakable.

For better or worse, aye,
I recall I said the words.
But if that worse comes to worst
then it’s all been for nothing.

This one cannot bear that weight.
Leave me here with naked grief
and I bequeath you nothing
but this shell of broken things.

© BJ Dawson — 2025

You Can’t Stop The Rain · Loose Ends - So Where Are You - ℗ 1985 Virgin Records Limited - Released on: 1985-01-01

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Barry’s new chapbook, jagged remnants of you, is available on Lulu in paperback and eBook, and will soon be available for global distribution.

Tips are always welcome.

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