Am I Doing this Grieving Thing Correctly?

I throw eggs against a tree
as my Buddhist counselor suggests.

I write, then burn, letters
as my therapist instructs.

I meditate,
sit with the sadness, don’t resist.

I’m a straight-A student
trying to master this hellish test.

And still,
even in restaurants, the grocery,

I’m like my sister who cried all over her
Mexican village the year Manolo left:

The children began to call her La Llorona:
The Weeping Woman.

 

This poem also appears in Untying the Knot by Karen Paul Holmes (Aldrich Press, 2014) www.amzn.com/0615998984

 

 

About the Poet:
Karen Paul Holmes has a full-length poetry collection, Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, 2014). She was chosen for Best Emerging Poets 2015 (Stay Thirsty Media, forthcoming). Publications include Prairie Schooner, Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Slipstream, and Poet Lore. To support fellow writers, Holmes originated and hosts a critique group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

 

 

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