It’s not like losing a child
where you just sit there
and the child just sits there
but you’re the only one
doing the talking.
It’s more like a placenta
out of sticks and mud
in the driveway,
a former home where
something was born
and left, or maybe was
born and never got to
leave or was swept
away by the wind
that came through
here last night, maybe
more like having a house
burn to the ground,
no big deal if you have
wings to take you
somewhere else.
~Casey Killingsworth “A Nest Blew Down” from Freak Show

Every one of us knows loss.
At times, lost things are replaceable;
most are not.

When what we love is swept away,
so are we.
Who we were is no longer who we become
in that instant of loss.

All things change;
we become strangers in a new land,
toppled over, empty, and gasping.

Wings won’t carry us away from ourselves.
No matter where our wings take us,
we depend on a God who refills
our hollowed-out hearts.