Grief on an Oriental Carpet

The weary man and woman stood
on the worn oriental carpet,
the last item left in the home
they were about to vacate.
Their belongings had been sold,
neither of them wanting to carry more
baggage from their life as a couple.
They were so eager to get going
but strangely hesitant to leave.

They did not yet understand that
remnants of love were tightly woven
into the torn fabric of their marriage,
remnants that would not be unraveled
by any court’s decree
and that the heaviness which seemed
to root them to the frayed carpet
was grief.

***

Eileen Van Hook has had poetry published in various literary journals and anthologies including: “The Writer”, “Gallery Series III”, “Gulf Coast Anthology”, “Stoneboat”, “Chronogram”, “Bridges”, “The Stillwater Review”, “Wordgathering”, “The Paterson Literary Review” and “Gravel” among others.  She placed first in a poetry contest in “Writer’s Journal”, is a Pushcart Prize nominee and recently received an Editor’s Choice Award in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest.  Eileen lives and writes in the wilds of northwestern New Jersey.