For the Loss of a Child

There are no words large enough
to hold the weight of this goodbye,
no frame of understanding
that can answer why.

You were here for such a little while,
but in that time you filled
more hearts with love, more eyes with wonder,
than a century could build.

We wanted a lifetime with you—
a thousand ordinary days,
your laughter at the table,
your voice in all its ways.

Instead we hold the moments:
the warmth of your small hand,
your sleeping breath at midnight,
things the heart can understand.

Grief like this has no horizon,
no tidy place to end.
But neither does the love we carry;
it will not break, it will not bend.

You are woven into us forever.
No distance, time, or sorrow
can undo the truth that you were ours
yesterday, today, and every tomorrow.

We will speak your name.
We will tell your story.
And in the quiet spaces of our lives
we will hold you close, in all your glory.