Silent Memories

She left us there in awkward silence-
to tend to her own agony
and maybe I shouldn't
have thought her selfish,
but I did...

and there were no words,
only deafening tension,
and a burning knot in my throat...
I guess I knew,
thought the silence was screaming,
"Do not say!"

-And for what?
I finally ask, to a never-answering
memory?
Why could none of us ever say the words?

02/25/2006