NOT UNTIL...

Both of them

walked up the steps

with soldierly bearing,

with personal dread

needing to tell her

that he was dead.

It occurred to me then

when watching these men,

that no one is dead until

someone is told.

To them has fallen

this terrible task.

This deliverance of news...

Ma’am, is there anything

you'd like to ask?

They know she's not listening

They know she is stunned;

her heart has stopped beating,

her reality out-gunned.

They're the bearers of horrors,

and destroyers of soul...

and their own grief stays with them

until they are old.

© Christina 10-19-05

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