European Escape

I didn’t like the gloom
Which had settled in
Over our household,
After Cecilia died
And I felt an urgency
To get away for a while,
As far away as possible.
I set up a three week
Whirlwind tour of Europe,
Starting in Germany,
And passing through
Austria, Switzerland
And on into Italy.
What I had in mind
Was a more relaxing
And less taxing adventure
Than it turned out to be.
If I thought we could
Escape the tyranny of our grief,
I was sadly mistaken.
The fog came with us,
And colored all of Europe.
The dizzying pace
At which we traveled,
Gave us almost no time to relax,
And precious little time
To appreciate the beauty
Of any place we visited.
Our nerves were raw
To begin with,
And the stress of the trip
Only compounded things.
At times it seemed
We needed to get away
From each other
As much as we did
The sadness haunting us.
In hindsight I recognize
The trip was our version
Of shock therapy
To get us out of
The doldrums we were in.
The fact is that it worked
Amazingly well.
In spite of our foul moods,
Occasional thoughts
Of strangulation,
And our judgements
That the trip
Should have been
Planned much differently,
Than it was,
We managed to enjoy
Most of our tour.
Our heads were still spinning
When we got back
To the States,
But we were ready
To get on with
The rest of our lives.