Memory of a Newspaper

My eyelid clings to a nebulous newspaper. The breakfast table, like a silent stranger. in black and white ink on which page i’ll never know the drowning ink speaks I’m a cashier, my first real job, and a high school student. I immerse myself into the day, yawning with wake-up tears. Monica bears news she has dark hair and glasses a fortune to spill My coworker and peer, begins with “Did you hear about…” And her words, like high tide roll in… the night sea splashes against the serrated edge ~ clean cut of forehead Tragic news for my best friend, former teacher, peers, and neighbors. This young man, at the top of his senior class, was taken down by whirlpool hands. graduation boon celebration of their lives ~ flotsam in the lake My biology teacher’s eyes, red and sore with tears, wrestle with mine. His son, nearby, in a treasure chest. I hold my teacher’s hand, wanting to wring-out his pain. no difference in age all boundaries slip away in whirlpool of pain But, lest you think this the only tragedy, a newspaper article was written containing the names of several more friends, neighbors, classmates who died that year. A serial killer it was not, but strange all the same. newspapers in wait contain the weight of our lives facts not yet revealed 10/27/2017 Dust Off A Memory Contest