Ashen faced, slumped there,
Clutching a crumpled
Brown telegram
No words she uttered
No tears, fell from those brown eyes
The words on the paper
Lodged in her throat
K I A
Blocking a silent scream of anguish.
She felt her fingers open,
The impersonal note dropping to
The cold stone floor, making no noise
To disturb the silent cry locked within her.
........
In the years and decades that follow
All that she could remember
Was the dreadful silence, of
The painful scream locked within her,
On the day she lost her sweetheart.