HELGA GRUENDLER-SCHIERLOH

 

A Sonnet

 

Final Goodbye To A Lost Love

 

There are no bitter tears for me to shed,

no heartfelt sighs and moans to render,

although the news of your recent death

opened old wounds and left them tender.

 

There is no consolation for me to claim,

nor any escape into a heartfelt embrace.

All the sympathies offered in this game

belong to another who took my place.

 

There are no words to properly frame

the strange sensation that now betrays

the grieving I mastered in silent shame

as we embarked on our separate ways.

 

Desperate for healing, comforting release,

I flee into the twilight of faint memories.

 

Poetic Prose

 

Letting Go

 

Once upon a time, after saying goodbye to my parents, and other loved ones as well, I heeded the call to move on, to venture out into the world, to seek and pursue something new and exciting.

 

Did I find it?

 

I did—some of it.

 

However, it frequently came with a price made of crucial adjustments, like feeling left out, branded a newcomer, a stranger, even a foreigner. Then, somewhere along the way, I had to bid goodbye to my beloved children as they embarked on their own destiny—and it was once again time to move on. I traveled different routes, tried on new approaches, and even jumped into a few risky escapades. I craved the adrenaline rush that is so often inherent in novel experiences.

 

Did I find it?

 

I did—some of it.

 

However, while venturing into dizzying challenges and being thrilled to embrace them, the loss of family left an emptiness that remained hard to fill. Now, drawing closer to the proverbial light at the end of my earthly tunnel, I prepare for saying goodbye to those who are an important part of my life—my wonderful, if occasionally rather absent, children—my precious, and mostly endearingly present grandkids—and a rapidly dwindling number of friends. I feel nostalgic and strangely mellow. However, having become an expert in letting go, I count on a smooth transfer.

 

Will I find it?

 

I sincerely hope so.

 

A Haiku

 

The Shift

 

Life's curtain is drawn

 

for one destiny to shift

 

 

into a new dawn.

 

HELGA GRUENDLER-SCHIERLOH

 

HELGA GRUENDLER-SCHIERLOH is a bilingual Michigan writer with a degree in journalism and graduate credits in linguistics. Her articles, essays, short fiction, and poetry have appeared in the USA, the UK, Canada, and South Africa. The author's debut novel, Burying Leo, a Me Too story released in 2017, won second place in women’s fiction during Pen Craft Awards’ 2018 writing contest.