Ode to the Serenity Prayer
…the courage to change the things I can
& the wisdom to know the difference
Grief turns to obsession, you deify
and mythologize loss; daughters
sons spouses lovers become heroes,
you swath yourself in their legend;
bask in the soft glow of make believe
pasts, never allowing them to breathe
denying them the death and memory
they deserve. You become addicted
to torment, turned to stone by grief
start to hibernate, hide from the bloom
of a sunrise, deaf to the music of spheres
you become dead yourself, a ghost
haunting your own life; pieces thought
missing, never lost at all. The day I’m gone
I will watch over you,
be the whisper in your ear, the spark of light
in the darkest corners; we will create and love,
wake up alive, saved from death.
About the Author: Alex Stolis lives in Minneapolis; he has had poems published in numerous journals. The full-length collection, Postcards from the Knife-Thrower was runner up for the Moon City Poetry Prize in 2017. Two full length collections Pop. 1280, and John Berryman Died Here were released by Cyberwit and available on Amazon. His work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Piker’s Press, Jasper’s Folly Poetry Journal, One Art Poetry, Black Moon Magazine, and Star 82 Review. His chapbook, Postcards from the Knife-Thrower’s Wife is forthcoming from Louisiana Literature Press in 2024. He has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize.
Image Credit: Edvard Munch Melancholy (1892)Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 