Friday's Faith - The Haunted Eyes

Friday's Faith

The Haunted Eyes

We smile,

We greet family

We laugh at antics

We share stories

We take pictures...

Ah... There's the rub.

We look upon the pictures

And see...

The true story,

The story underneath the story

Of public graces and small talk.

We see

The eyes...

The face is smiling

But,

The eyes...

Are forever sad,

Not fitting into the graceful,

fun laughter

filling out the rest of our face.

The eyes are haunted...

though

Surrounded by family,

Surrounded by people,

Surrounded by love...

We are haunted

By the one who is NOT there...

Forever gone from our hearts

embrace

Forever gone from our playful

repartee

Forever gone from our reassuring

glances

Forever gone from our loving

hugs

Our eyes are haunted

As our eyes will never forget;

They are the window to our soul

And they will not lie.

We are haunted.

Our lives are destroyed

Our story has stopped

...Because you left us,

Or were taken...

And though we appear to "move on"

We never will.

Not really.

For our eyes tell us

Our world has stopped...

Even if no one around us

knows

nor accepts it,

We know:

It's over.

Our eyes tell us

What we try not to know:

Life is forever changed

With the heart amputated

from its chest walls

And the soul eviscerated

from its former happy perch

And the spirit trapped

between Heaven and earth

but no longer grounded

in this room with these people

In this here and now,

but firmly entrenched in

the Promise,

the Promise of

what is to come,

but still

the Promise...

of the

Not Yet.

Picture, thanks to Loss of an Adult or Young Adult Child Photos

Poem - The Haunted Eyes - Angie Bennett Prince - 9/8/2011

Picture of Heaven, thanks to Jill Compton