You wanted to stand up and speak,
you wanted your story
to be told,
you wanted them all to know
how much she meant to you

But all your words kept being swallowed
in second guessing and regret,
and by the knowledge that your anguish
wasn’t something you could convey, anyway,
wasn’t something that people
had the capacity to hear.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 14, 2021