Sitting before the Seagram Murals

grief gently sobbed from me
while I clambered through
a deep red abyss.

I asked the murals to keep my pain
but they refused

(you cannot give us what was never yours

take it back)
they said

Drowning in bruised colour, I stood


but grief held my hand as we left,
staring back into the sea,
wondering why it could not leave me.

Stay, 
I said-
You are all I have left
of what was never mine

How can I give you up?