Oh, Love Triumphant in All the Dark Places

Prose Poetry

Photo by Daniel Apodaca on Unsplash

Say it loud with me — if the words are burning in your throat, waiting for a release that’s been put on hold for days and months and years.

We tell ourselves we’re the gods of the universe, but we know so little in a universe that has spanned millennia upon millennia.

Who are we to shift the tide? Who are we to forbid or grant or just take power in our hands for a time?

Compared to the universe’s grand pull, we are just the ants crawling on a rock floating in space.

But when we are lifted up with creeds of hope and peace, maybe then we can fool ourselves a little bit.

We can convince ourselves of only so much in so little of a time.

“Love is the answer,” someone may say. Do we believe it? Some do, some don’t, and some don’t care either way.

But what sparks in my heart is not the grand gesture or the flow of money between hands. No, I look at the granddaughter who holds the pale, frail hand of her grandmother whose eyes have grown murky with the weight of disease. I see the way the young girl’s eyes brim with tears, yet she never lets them fall. She wears a smile that can only fool so much, but at least she’s not shedding tears in front of the one who might become upset the…