Stories are my favourite.
Each life is a book of tales to share.
We are told some everyday.
Stories of
love, success;
failure, crime;
greed, power;
health, happiness;
birth and death.
Many stories that we hear,
about the many people that we see.
And the many that we tell about ourselves.

But it’s not the ones about the living,
rather the ones after death,
those are the stories I love.
If there’s possibly one silver lining
in the heartbreak this final tragedy brings,
it’s in the reminiscing about the person gone.
Of the littlest interactions;
the fleeting moments shared;
How they made everyone around them feel;
the joy and similes they spread;
Of the lives that were touched.
the inside jokes, the secret warmth.
The love and the fondness
that remained only between them.

These memories that people usually keep to themselves.
Probably because they’re embarrassed
to openly wear their hearts on their sleeves
for someone while they’re standing right there,
or to avoid embarrassing the other,
or reasons far more lacklustre.

But once the person has left our world,
these stories come tumbling right out,
as though they can no longer be contained in a heart too full,
breaking open the shackles of the cage of ribs,
they come riding upon a chariot of tears;
bringing comfort and solace
in their telling and the listening.
Sentimentality!
There’s so much power in such a soft word!

And I really hope God allows these souls
to stick around long enough to hear,
for their life’s contribution;
their impact and legacy;
their footprint upon this earth,
is hiding within them.
These little anecdotal, slice-of-life stories
then often go on to become
the greatest masterpieces
of all the arts in the world,
inspiring generations to come.

It’s these stories that are my favourite!
When one person becomes many!

-Nitya Alwani Satyani
10/10/2024

#inmemory #griefpoetry