Darkness

Darkness

She couldn't see to put on her makeup

the sirens sounded as the lights went out

just as she leaned into the mirror

to dry her eyes, to smooth the mascara

that lined her swollen lids

He hung them on a rack over his winter shirts

the hats he'd collected since second grade

he was fingering the one he'd gotten

on their honeymoon in Colorado

wondering how this fight always got started

why he couldn't open his mouth without

saying something rotten

that's when the lights

went dead

It would have been sensible

to yell

to grope through the big house

to find each other

but she stayed staring

into the blackness that had been

her face

he leaned into his shirts

planted his face in the staleness

of his closet

and the twister

leveled what was left