THE ANTHOLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND WRITERS (20th Edition) (PRINT) Nov '07
(Editor's Choice; Robt. Penn Warren Free Verse Contest)
I never heard anyone shout so loud
so softly. Barely a tabletop away
I couldn’t hear a word she said
but I could see him sitting as she spoke,
could see his hands move from his lap
to a clasp, almost as if in prayer
before him, between them; could see
his face, and read the awful truth:
that she’d said it all before,
a million times or more, and said it now
one last time before she said goodbye.
He had nothing left to consider but
empty hands and having, finally, heard.