In the Week Before We Leave for the Clinic

by Wendy Taylor Carlisle

I inhabit planet grief, stumble around, enraged, terrified, bitten by grief’s mastiff, in a grief trance, I look up—

grief n [[ME gref  < Ofr, sorrow, grief: < grever. ]1. intense emotional suffering caused by loss, disaster, misfortune, etc. acute sorrow, deep sadness, 2. to catch your breath, to pause and stare at nothing. Or a gully.  see GRIEVE—

grieve vt , [[ME  greven <  OFr  grever  <L  grevare, to burden, < gravis, heavy, grievous, :]] 1. to cause to feel grief ; 2. afflict with deep, acute sorrow or distress vi.(verb intransitive) to feel deep, acute sorrow or distress; mourn. see GRAVE—

grave  [Fr < L gravis, heavy weighty < IE base *, heavy mill > QUERN, Gr barys, heavy, Sans gurúh, grave]] 1. requiring serious thought; important weighty. 2. seriously threatening health, well-being, or life; critical; dangerous [a grave illness]. See GROVEL

grovel:[ME] 1. to weep during TV commercials, to forget why you entered a room, to let the laundry pile up, to have no idea what comes next, to be unfixed, vacant, to question the adjective acute. 2. to believe and believe and come up slack, to forage for a deity to make deals with, to sing made-up hymns, to be powerless against a grave illness, to accept critical, finally, to give in. 3. posture of giving in.