It comes in waves

It comes in waves.
When you're finally living
It crashes into you and shatters your mind
Wrenches your stomach,
Wraps its parasitic tendrils around your heart.

It comes in waves.
When you're pulled into depths
That the sun can't penetrate
When you're certain that this time, it won't end
The warmth begins to enter
Colour seeps back into the world
And laughter is no longer a foreign language.

This will happen.
Again and again.

But the waves will become smaller, my love.
They will hit with less power.
The ocean becomes a stream.
I can promise you this -
The light will come again.

This is grief:
As natural as the flowing tides.
Life in all its bittersweetness
Shapes us as water shapes mountains.
Breath comes,
One at a time,
​And you will feel joy again.