Everybody says / time heals everything. / But what of the wretched hollow? / The endless in between?

The lines challenge the comforting cliché that “time heals everything” by focusing on what grief and loss feel like while they are still unfolding. The speaker points to the “wretched hollow”—the emptiness left behind—and especially to the “endless in between,” the liminal period after a rupture when life continues but meaning and stability have not yet returned. Rather than denying eventual recovery, the quote insists on acknowledging the lived reality of waiting: healing is not instantaneous, and time can stretch into a painful suspension. Its power lies in naming that interim as its own experience, not merely a prelude to getting better.