raven looks up from its crumbs & leaves
shrugs its greying wings
hops across the drying street
I still don’t hear
the car
the child’s scream
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This hurts. This REALLY hurts.
holy crap…..that closure took me by surprise…and shook me…
What an ending; I could feel the horror.
A slice of reality – abutting the observation of normalcy with the grotesque horror of a car hitting a child. These are indeed moments cast in stone! Tight and poignant.
Thank you for reading and commenting, all.
“Nevermore,” quoth the Raven.
Methinks your second stanza protests too much. “The child” keeps something close at a distance so it can continue to be denied.
Very nice. Hope it is not your true story! I once hit the brakes for a small boy in my path — after I had my own son — and great breathless with the sudden thought that that was someone else’s beloved son! Whoosh!
Exactly, Charles. In reality when we see something happen to someone we don’t know personally, we can deny them their connections or imagine those connections that have to be: I like to give the reader that choice (and that responsibility).
Elizabeth, such a powerful piece in so few words. Well said.
Pamela
Thank you!