It came at night; she half

expected murder

disappointment discomfiture

of other expectations

First: dark quiet

reigned-in blacker dream

dreams dreamer never

saw the crush

approached from her exposed

right side, eye unblinking

fracture fractured quiet

undone in the crush,

the crush. She breathed hard

knuckle bone against

bone, skin rent rendered

red under night’s

black blanket, unconscious

rifted shifting. Bright

light in her head, the crush

silent crush. She heard

something like television

snow crackled then

and then—nothing

nothing but the quiet

of nothing. She thought:

“So this is what it’s like.

This is what

it’s like to die

when fragments

of love crushed bone

skull bone collapses

yields to fist and flesh

and crush sometime

after twelve, when children

should be asleep, not

hearing, not listening

And this is how Mother

felt when Daddy—

when Daddy

when love in some disguise

some disgruntled love drunk

love comes home too late

or too soon.