having departed

from understood

but not quite arrived

at unknown

 

it’s where she sits

touching the edge

 

since the moment

the scan showed

what might have otherwise

gone unnoticed

 

how can you trust

a body that has gone

so wrong

 

what is strength

when it shrouds

what we need to know

 

if only 

she had sensed 

the lonesome one

 

before it propagated

across the landscape

of viscera

 

she could have sent

a single soldier

 

now it will take 

whole armies – 

old colonels

conscripted youth

uncertain mercenaries – 

 

she will have to accept

what she is given

 

she will have to ask

for things she never wanted

 

she will have to love

the body 

though it betrayed her

betrays her still

 

she will have to be present

for others 

even as her own essence 

abandons her

 

she will learn to be honest

when she wants to lie

& to lie when she wants

to scream 

 

where she sits

it’s not so different 

 

from the one silent

in basement or attic

as nazis stalked

above or below

 

from the one lying 

gagged & bound

in the trunk

of a moving car

 

from the one clinging

to a roof

while waters rise

 

they have all touched

the edge

of terrible

possibility

 

all that’s left is to wait