We were having dinner together
the three of us
It was silent
except for the clicking
of our forks on our plates
and dark
except for the dim orange glow
of five little candles on the table
I should have known
because there was
something deafening about the silence
something blinding about the dark
My father's fork stopped clicking
and he looked up at me
there was
something crazy in his eyes
his irises turned to ashes
and fell like snow
from his darkened face
and he stood slowly
my mother and I with him
as if drawn up by a magnet
She said his name
slowly
careful not to break the delicate silence
but he yelled hers
his eyes flaming now
shattering the silence
like the brittle glass it was
and he hurled the shards at her
a thousand at her heart
She
f
e
l
l
with a dull
eerie
thud.
Something screamed
and told me
to keep the silence
so I stood petrified and said
nothing
But it was already broken
He threw a thousand more
and added a thousand
tongues of fire from his eyes
at me
And I fell too
next to her
I gripped her ****** hand
as we died together
killed
by the shards
of broken
silence.
A mother and her teenage daughter were shot and killed this summer by her husband, who then killed himself. My thoughts and prayers are with their family, and I hope with all my heart that one day, there will be no more tragic and horrible stories of domestic violence.