Stagnant water
pooling here or there
in dips, cracks patched over,
asphalt heaped on asphalt
smothering the earth.
Somehow a tuft
of cyclamen has succeeded
in wrestling its way
through a fissure
running deep and unchecked,
like our emotions that day.
Ten years on, your voice
still cracks
when you say his name,
the weight of loss
still suffocating.
Don’t cry, I say,
my brave face firmly
plastered on.
But maybe
cracks are Nature’s way
of healing.
Poem by Catherine Jefferson
Catherine Jefferson is a researcher, writer and animal welfare campaigner based in West Sussex, UK. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Veganism: An Online Journal, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Plants & Poetry Journal, The Field Guide Poetry Magazine and Wild Roof Journal.