The Ground Between Us
(c) 2007

I walk around by your head, by the place where you rest
but nobody sees us
leaves blow across my feet, my hands hidden in my sleeves
but there's ground between us

It's about quarter to one, my eyes still open
right here where I lie
I walk down the hall, and stand with a pause
by the room where you died

It's not just my heart, but that you were a part
of this family inside
but though the ties never break, it's just so hard to take
and that's why we've cried

I kneel down by the stone, though I know I'm not alone
I say a prayer to Jesus
I seem to hear you speak, and I know you're not asleep
though there's ground between us

 Yeah. My father died this year, and I wrote it one night when I just felt like writing something about him.

 It's always hard to loose a loved one but, as a Catholic, we really are blessed in so many ways at the same time. The beautiful truth of purgatory, for instance, and how we can pray for those we love... Yes, they may be suffering, and that's the truth, but there is something we can do about it, and also they can pray for those they love. I know a woman who lost a family member and says she is always praying for this woman to help her (it was either a mother or grandmother, I can't remember), and things just happen through her intercession.

 In my own case, three very remarkable family conversions/comings-back to the Church occurred over these ensuing months that are just incredible. This is why there's a thread of hope or peace in the poem, because... how can one mourn completely, when one knows that the person they love isn't just "asleep" or else totally gone, but that they are quite alive (albeit spiritually now), and are actually (hopefully) helping those they love perhaps more than they could while they were alive, by powerful prayers from purgatory or heaven? There really isn't room for despair when a Catholic looses a fellow Catholic.

In the end, you miss the person being there physically, of course. You miss talking to them, doing the things you used to do, or just being in their company. But ultimately, if they're Catholic and you're Catholic, then there's a very good chance that person is not really "gone" in the most important sense. Their love continues for us in the form of their intercession, and our love for them in the form of prayers for their soul.

The only real "loss" is to loose a soul to hell, and that none of us is qualified to judge, however horrible the sinner. Sometimes God's grace comes in the last moments. We just have to hope and pray.