When a child grieves, it does not always look like sorrow,
It may look like silence where laughter used to live,
Or questions asked at the most unexpected moments,
As if their heart is trying to understand what words cannot hold.
They may play as if nothing has changed,
Building worlds where everything is still okay,
Then suddenly stop, eyes searching a space
Where someone used to be, but no longer is.
Grief, to a child, comes in small waves,
In missing a voice at bedtime,
In reaching for a hand that isn’t there,
In wondering if love can still find them.
And so they grieve in pieces, not all at once,
Carrying both light and loss in the same small heart,
Learning slowly, gently,
That even when someone is gone, love remains.