Little Fierce Ones
by A. A. Parr
for Tessy

I know you wonder when the aching ends 
but it won’t and
I’m not sorry 
to tell you this because 
the aching means it mattered,
the aching means
you’re still alive enough
to feel this pain
and the aching means 
you’ve known 
something that is
the opposite of loss because 
without shadows looming
at the edges of long days 
you’d never learn to look
for flickers of light, to
want for magic,
to believe yourself 
as best you can 
by yourself.

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