Grapefruit: Life After Loss
/It started with a grapefruit.
Sour, sweet, and bitter by taste.
After a doctor’s appointment,
Roslynn brought home the news.
His lips stretched over his teeth.
Roslynn couldn’t be serious.
But she was.
Seth pulled her arm,
guiding her into his lap.
Roslynn laughed.
Seth moved her bangs behind her ear
and told her she’d be a wonderful mother.
Tears formed as streams of crystals
spread across her cheeks.
Seth moved a tissue across
her eyes.
The couple grew as she ballooned.
The girl, they just knew that it’d be a girl,
kicked her cocoon, ready to burst its balloon.
Seth and Roslynn’s world blossomed
to a palpable applause.
But the day Kaylee was to be,
wasn’t meant to be.
Roslynn lost the baby.
Seth didn’t blame anyone.
Roslynn felt shame for her womb
leaving them childless.
A young couple doesn’t have the tools
to deal with life’s imperfections.
Seth took a sip off the pain here
and made excuses for Roslynn
to pull him out of smoky dive bars.
Seth’s liver gave him years to turn
his life around, but he played chicken
and chickens don’t last long.
Seth stopped drinking when he lost sight
of who he was.
A doctor in a room with white walls
gave him weeks if he didn’t stop.
Seth had to ask Roslynn for forgiveness.
She asked for what?
A part of his soul assigned
blame on her.
Seth knew it wasn’t true,
but he had to blame someone.
God had mercy on Seth
and allowed him to live.
Seth and Roslynn visited a therapist.
They released their grief
and decided to try again.
Roslynn turned up with a grapefruit.
Roslynn knew, she just knew, that it’d be a girl.
The couple sat with several doctors to make sure
things went well.
And they did.
FOUR YEARS LATER
Alicia is up in Seth’s arms on the balcony,
laughing at Roslynn
for making silly faces as they watch
the sun dip beneath the horizon;
shadows replace soft rays.
Nothing brought them closer than life’s pain.
By Andy Cooper
From: United States
Website: https://writeovercoffee.blog/
Twitter: AC0040