Between Us Alone

How could they know

her absence is not a

casual subject of conversation

between us and others, only

between us alone.  A chance

encounter, an animated

conversation and then, 

a pall of silence, a brief,

terse explanation, a 

flurried expression of

condolence, and we part;

they wondering, we thrust

back to the raw emotions

of loss, for our wound is

not yet contained within the

healing properties of scar

tissues enabling endurance.