I am not unfamiliar with loss.
It has marked my life in permanent ink,
etched itself into my nervous system,
mistaking my endurance for invitation.

I have buried my parents.
I have survived the absence of my only sibling.
I learned early how to remain upright when the architecture of family collapsed.

When someone I know begins to disappear from this world,
it reactivates old knowledge.
Not closeness,
but recognition.

I do not pretend devastation.
I do not borrow grief that is not mine.
I acknowledge the weight of witnessing
yet another ending.

Grief does not unmake me.
It informs me.
It sharpens my reverence for what matters
and my intolerance for what does not.

I understand what many refuse to face..
that life is provisional,
that attachment carries an expiration
we learn to ignore.

I do not bargain with grief.
I do not plead with the inevitable…
I stand aware.
I hold memory without embellishment.
I carry sorrow in my pockets with restraint and clarity.

This is not the first time loss has spoken.

It has not taken me yet.
It will not take me now.

JA