She tilts her head back
As if to ready a violin
Her hands made into fists
Punching her face
Her mouth foams
Blood runs
From chewing on her tongue and jaw
I have timed
Tornadoes
Storms as they pass over
Shop lifters
But this was the longest
Minutes of my life
The seconds carry the weight of hours
After the seizure passes
Like the eye of the storm
It takes half an hour for the cloud mass to break
And clarity to return
I have to repeat answers to questions asked every few minutes
Like fragments
Falling to the earth
Left behind
And she slurs her speech
And I am reminded
How much we take for granted
This idea that everything will be here tomorrow
Exactly as it is today
And I think
How quickly all the lamps expire
And how much of ourselves we put on hold
Betting for tomorrow
How much I didn’t write
Believing I would be
Could be
Better
Tomorrow
Life
Tears us apart
And takes away our talents
The people we love
We are so bold
So brass
So full of our youth
We believe
We have time
But the lamps
Are expiring
As I hold my wife
And she is sleeping
I think about
The rain against the window
The dry lightning
As
The sun is setting
We are not permanent
We are not forever
I think about the orchestra
Playing in rhythm
I think about the shows we’ve seen
The musicals
The theater
I think about
How quickly we are gone
Even stars burn out
Even phoenixes are reborn
Even the air is thin
Between the lightning
Everything
Everything
Everything
Expires
Even when denied
Time will prove
Right
As the spring leaves
Are swept away
In the street
This is all we have
All we are
– Ethan Bethune
Regarding Samuel 