POETRY CORNER
Wailing
The Sound of Grief
Wailing
Rumors, circulating the school
like electricity,
relayed to me that
my absent friend was
in the hospital.
That’s what I was told,
not by anyone in particular
but by the walls, the lockers
and the wind,
the weighted words pressing down
on my chest like a jaguar
breathing its hot breath
into my face, crushing me
with anxious fright.
Numb, fogged in, isolated,
shaken, afraid.
After school I took to the phone
and, all alone, called the hospital,
needing to know.
“We’re sorry. We can’t answer that.
You’ll have to call the family.”
I dialed, then listened to several rings,
mind racing, the experience harrowing.
What I heard next answered
all the queries of my heart.
I understood fully
while it tore me apart.
I heard the sound of wailing,
a chorus of grief.
And off my soul went sailing,
unconsoled, without relief.
3–10–2020
Another attempt to capture in words the first day of my junior year in high school.
