I tried to keep my heart from sputtering.
Still, it made extra beats, then skipped some thumps.
I tried not to feel cold
though the July air hovered, icy and static.
I tried not to let the serene panic I experienced
dominate my mind to the point of paralysis.
Nearly everything lay in disarray.
A quiet like the void before Creation
would not budge.
My only company:
the thief's imagined footsteps
and his unwanted mug
reflected in mirrors, in windows--
a visage everywhere
yet absent...
a ghost
as real as loneliness
after disaster.
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