Poems from Grief

My sister died after a long illness on December 8, 2025, just hours from her 65th Birthday!

The following were born as I navigated the pain.

Two Shadows, One Heart

I grieve for you, 

your tired feet on roads too long,

your hands forever fixing

what the world kept breaking,

your hope stretched thin

across years of quiet ache.

But I grieve for me, too

for the woman I once was,

the one who carried storms alone,

who fought for love in barren soil,

who believed survival was a virtue

and suffering meant she mattered.

You chased money, thinking it might save you;

I chased worth, thinking it might make me whole.

Both of us running on empty,

both of us believing sacrifice

was the price of being good.

You bore burdens no body should hold

and I, for so long,

did the same.

Two sisters, two stories,

woven with the same thread

of trying too hard

for things that never gave us rest.

Today, your body is freed

released from the aching,

the striving,

the endless next battle.

And as your spirit rises,

something in me rises too:

the truth that I do not

have to live that way anymore.

So I grieve you,

and I grieve the shadow of myself

who walked beside you in suffering

the version of me who didn’t know

she was allowed to rest,

allowed to receive,

allowed to dream.

This grief is a braid

your story and mine

twisting together in tenderness.

But hear this, Kim,

and hear this, Dawn:

the lines between us soften now.

Your pain is over.

And mine…

mine is finally learning

to let go.

I carry your memory,

but not your burden.

I honour your journey,

but I choose a different ending.

Two shadows, one heart

both finally finding light.

Bittersweet Birthday (A Poem for Kim)

On the morning I turned fifty-nine,

the universe exhaled its quiet design

a balance carved in threads unseen,

precise, mysterious, evergreen.

My sister and I, one day we shared,

two lives entwined, two souls compared.

And yesterday, at 4:20’s light,

she slipped beyond my mortal sight.

While she released her final breath,

I laughed at flowers, unaware of death

a bouquet sparked by Stevie’s heart,

a tender, unexpected art.

Joy bloomed bright in fragrant air

not knowing sorrow waited there.

An hour passed

the world collapsed.

I crumpled to the floor at last.

Expected news still shatters bone

grief arrives and makes itself known.

Yet even then, beneath the ache,

relief began its quiet wake

for pain had held her far too long,

and mercy came to right the wrong.

Then morning broke in softer ways:

an unanswered call, a golden haze

Aunt J’s sweet card, her love made gold,

a necklace warm within my hold.

Tears rose again, but not from pain

joy returning like gentle rain.

This day is stitched with sweet and steep,

with laughter’s rise and sorrow’s deep.

A tapestry of loss and bloom,

of birthday light and sister’s tomb.

Yet through it all, one truth rings true

love holds every shade of blue.

For grief is not the end of love;

it’s love transforming, rising above

a river moving stage to stage,

emptying hearts to make them age,

then filling them with something new,

something softer, something true.

And so today I stand between

the life that was and what’s unseen

a doorway closed, a bloom begun,

two sisters bound, now only one.

But love, still pulsing, will not sever

Kim walks on… in light forever.

Kim, the Wild One

Kim is a pillar of strength,

a spitfire wrapped in a tiny frame

the kind of woman the world underestimates

right before she proves them wrong.

She always did what she wanted,

no matter who said she shouldn’t,

couldn’t,

or can’t.

She’d just grin, roll her eyes,

and do it anyway.

A hellfire in a five-foot spark,

with a heart big enough to lift mountains

and a temper hot enough to melt them.

I remember us with Zack,

picking bottles out of dumpsters,

laughing too loud, smelling too questionable,

but determined to make it fun.

That was Kim

turning struggle into adventure,

turning lessons into stories Zack still carries.

She chased sea creatures

like she was born from the ocean,

and taught Zack everything she loved

from tide pools to tiny treasures.

And then came Molly the fish,

the spark of something grand

a home-built aquarium empire

that turned into a business

only Kim could dream into being.

But the beach…

oh, that was her church.

Not the sandy kind

the rocky, ancient, stubborn kind.

Stones with stories,

stones with color,

stones with shapes that only she

could truly see.

St. Vincent

Peppy stuck in the rocks,

us doubled over laughing,

the kind of laugh you don’t forget

because it lifts the weight off your chest

for days.

Then Trinity.

Bonavista Bay.

Places that felt like worlds

before life became heavy.

Places where we remembered

who we were

before the world asked too much.

This is Kim

wild, brave, funny, brilliant,

full of grit and magic and unbelievable heart.

A woman who carved her own path

every damn day.

And I celebrate her

not in memory,

but right now,

while she’s here,

while she can hear it:

Kim, you were always the wild one.

The brave one.

The unstoppable one.

The one who lived life

with fire in your eyes

and the ocean in your bones.

The Unsung Hero 

In the quiet of the chaos,

where the fear and shadows live,

stood a brother made of gentleness

strength he would give.

He was the rock beneath the waves,

the steadiness in the storm,

the warmth that held a breaking world

and kept a family warm.

He moved like whispered kindness,

a protector in the night,

weaving calm in every moment,

turning sorrow into light.

He was the peace-maker, the anchor,

the soft drum of a steady heart,

holding grief with tender fingers

as the world fell apart.

while they slept or trembled,

he was a conductor of grace

feeding hope with quiet courage,

love etched upon his face.

He walked her through the last horizon,

with devotion as his guide,

a guardian of her final breaths,

her safe place by his side.

Unsung heroes rarely notice

the miracles they do

but I saw every act of love,

and Troy… I honour you.

For you carried more than anyone,

yet you never let it show

a brother, warrior, gentle man,

more brave than you know.