Just Those Few Weeks

I can't remember where I first came across this poem, but it's so beautifully reflective of everything that is felt after a loss - even for a very early loss. 

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For just those few weeks
I had you to myself.
And that seems too short a time
to be changed so profoundly.
In those few weeks,
I came to know you...
and to love you.
You came to trust me with your life.
Oh what a life I had planned for you!
Just those few weeks...
when I lost you,
I lost a lifetime of hopes,
plans, dreams and aspirations.
A slice of my future simply vanished overnight.
Just those few weeks...
It wasn't enough time to convince others
how special and important you were.
How odd, a truly unique person has recently died
and no one is mourning the passing. (But me.)
Just a mere few weeks...
And no "normal" person would cry all night
Over a tiny unfinished baby,
No one would, so why am I?? (You would too.)
You were just those few weeks, my little one.
You darted in and out of my life too quickly.
But it seems that's all the time you needed
to make my life richer
and to give me a small glimpse of eternity.
~S. Erling