Jean Ryan

An Exaltation

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Running errands this morning,
I took my grief with me,
carried it into the UPS store,
waited in line with it at the bank,
brought it to the recycling center,
where it sat in the car as I hoisted
my cardboard and glass bottles.
We drove home in silence,
flat brown fields rushing by us,
nothing ahead but more days like this,
and then, as if I had asked for help,
the cloud-blown sky swept me up,
not the part of me holding the wheel,
but the person, the predicament,
and just like that, my grim rider was gone
and in the vanishing time of my life
having loved you was enough.

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Jean Ryan, a native Vermonter, lives in coastal Alabama. She is the author of two short story collections, Survival Skills and Lovers and Loners. She has also published a novel, Lost Sister, a book of nature essays, Strange Company, and a poetry collection, A Day Like This. https://jean-ryan.com/