Today (Phoenix)

Today is the two-year anniversary of my grandmother's death.  I wrote this poem a week after she died in 2008.  It seems like it's been forever now.
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Today,

I remember you in joy;

In laughter,

In echoes of voices, reminiscent foods

And silk that still smells like your skin.

Strange is the relief blooming now

Where grief, even in life, gnawed.

Silent is this journey's ending,

Which we take as fate.

Curious, the lack of the black rage,

For where I could not see before,

You are everywhere now;

Soft, golden, sunlit.

Full.

And even as weeping--so cathartic--

Cleanses backwards,

Spreading dirt to leave a snowy soul,

I can say nothing but "good night"

And wish you, the hero, safe travels to Valhalla;

No longer wasted, as in armored battle, but

Resplendent, glowing.

Eternally alive.

The phoenix of my dreams.

Brave warrior,

Dearest heart,

To where do you go now?

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"Someday we'll all be gone,

But lullabies go on and on.

They never die--

That's how you and I will be..."

~Lullaby by Billy Joel