Cristine A. Gruber- A Poem

Bereft

When one is searching

for the right thing to say,

the elusive condolence can

become as slick and slippery

as a greased pig at a county fair,

squirming and wriggling

at the back of the throat,

impossible to grasp and cling to,

the resulting sound resembling a

squeak or a squeal, not even close

to the comforting words of wisdom

one is searching for, lost and writhing,

deep within the careworn crevices

of the besieged and beleaguered brain.  

Cristine A. Gruber writes from sunny, Southern California. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines, including: North American Review, Writer’s Digest, California Quarterly, Dead Snakes, The Endicott Review, The Homestead Review, Iodine Poetry Journal, Leaves of Ink, Miller’s Pond, Napalm and Novocain, The Penwood Review, The Poet’s Haven, Pound of Flash, Pyrokinection, Red River Review, The Tule Review, Wilderness House Literary Review, and The Write Place at the Write Time. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Lifeline, is available from http://buybooksontheweb.com. More of Cristine's work can be found and enjoyed at http://sierraviewjournal.blogspot.com/.