When We Heard The News

We tried to distract ourselves

with silly jokes and games

designed to amuse children.

We watched the microwave turn emptily,

batch-cooked food we couldn’t eat,

our bodies rejected sustenance.

We ended up just sitting there in the dark,

unable to process what had happened,

unable to find the right words for comfort.

Overwhelmed, alone in company,

we felt the house shudder and sink with us,

down into the ground to keep you company.

Words were unnecessary, we sadly knew

nothing was going to make this right, 

we just had to sit with it for a while, in darkness.