After last Thursday’s adult session, looking at the return of the younger son, Karlie wrote this poem:

Cold loneliness

I have unravelled

And I try, I try

To knit a suit of armor
With these ragged cords
That could connect me to others

Warm bandage words wrap comfort around friends
But applied to contain my own pain
They shrink, thin and tangle in my trailing self

Isolated by what ifs
Reaching out is risky
I search for a way to tidy up alone

Community, family, relationship
Moth words
Eat my newest self sufficient cloak

Compassion reveals a fake shawl of pride
Real grief threads through its holes
Seen by those who trail pain too

There is no choice, again
I have to meet their eyes
Let my loss try to find theirs

As the laughter of relief empties self
Until love begins the untangling
And I unwind safely in the shelter of trust

There, friends patiently, reverently
Crochet me back into the larger warmth
Of beautiful unfinished communion

by Karlie Allaway.