Challenging Poetry

for Caleb, on his tenth birthday

He would have been ten
today, if so many ifs hadn't
closed with a resounding
silence. If only his eyes
had opened. If only his lungs
had filled by his will. If only
his fingers gripped. If only his heart
had beat. If only his brain had stayed,
but instead, it drifted away,
and everything stopped
leaving us broken in its wake.
The cracks where he should be
are still sore.

April 18—April 18 Prompt: “Stop! In the name of love, before you break my heart!”—write a poem where love turns everything around somehow, or stops a course of action, or stops everything!