The patriot guard did a memorial for Noah today, and it always surprises me that no matter how many years have passed, no matter how much healing has happened, no matter how many details have been smoothed over by time...the heart remembers. And the rawness of grief comes to the surface as though it was only yesterday that I was held in the arms of a leather-clad, flag-holding vet by the door of the funeral home until I had the courage to step inside.
sorrow sighs
©9-11-2026 hannah mclean
life and death
they separate
but life and loss
must integrate
for our body keeps on moving
when another’s becomes still
and our heart calls for more beating
when another’s never will
but heart song now must synthesize
with painful tones as
sorrow sighs
my words remain
in black and white
though years pass by
and cloud out sight
but never far from sound or song
the weight of what was lingers
imprinted in my forming
what I know by unseen fingers
photographs before my eyes
pull pain from deep as
sorrow sighs
life is lived
and so is death
the rise and fall
of injured breath
a beauty still comes overflowing
from a life that’s left to grieve
and scarred shoulders brush together
in the kindness of reprieve
some days the surface breaks to rise
the longing ache of
sorrow sighs
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