a child wanders off – down a grocery isle,
slips behind a magazine rack, or hides in the center
of a merry-go-round of clothes in a department store
and for one brief but eternal moment the blood rushes
to your head, your stomach convulses as the world
turns blindingly dark until finally, you are crushing them
in your arms and staring into their confused faces
and now, in this world turned inside out, it is a
common story among children that their parents
have been hidden far away, leaving them alone
to wander, lost in a strange country that disowns them
and how is it possible for a mother or father to live
when their heads are pounding with the rush of blood,
their stomachs are full of the lies they have choked down
and their worlds are shattered by the empty darkness
