I asked her how she was
and she wasn’t quick to respond.
she waited longer than one normally does
and I realized she was deciding if she was going to
start in the middle
or just tell me everything was fine.
“I feel death around us,” she said.
I wasn’t sure what to say, or what my silence might mean to her
but I couldn’t bring myself to respond
so I didn’t.
I just stood there
and took her in, and looked at her, focused at what she had just said
and then we had the conversation,
but neither one of us spoke,
but we understood each other,
and I embraced her with my thoughts of comfort.
then, her daughter needed help,
and I let her go,
reeling in my thoughts back inside my head
and in what may have been an hour or just a second all I could say was
“ok.”
and as she and her daughter began to engage each other,
I looked down at the sidewalk,
and just began to walk….