Traction

You raise your cup again

to down the draft of grief

as you must drink it

every time it fills

If it provides

something that you need,

or if you need to drink

until the well is dry,

we cannot say —

this is not, it would appear,

one of those things in life

about which we have a choice

This is just the trek across the day,

any one of them, every one,

this is going through the motions or

it is the steady necessary traction

cleansing as it draws you

with the urgency of home

to your core.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 1, 2018