GRIEF

I weep for this world,

I am a part of this world,

I am a part of that small hungry child

on the other side of the world,

At some unconscious level,

I feel the pain of a woman 

whose husband has died to violence,

I weep for her,

I weep for them,

I grieve for us all,

I must grieve for myself.

Some of us feel everything,

We cannot help it,

If you cannot feel the pain of others,

It still affects you,

It still becomes an illness of sorts,

A sense of unease.

There is no solution for the empathetic life.

It is the grieving that opens me to my heart, 

To my compassion for others, 

and in certain hopeless moments,

I touch compassion even for my self.