Tragedy(C)

Impersonal Newspaper Report
Cold Statistics
Over coffee and cookies
Theories discussed
How unsafe crowded places are?
Who could have?
What is the political stand?
How does the US react?

A long meandering email
My neighbors’ first cousin
Was there
Nearer.
Tch tch, Safe?
More tea anyone?

Close friend
Nearly there
Brush with death
Words no longer
Living human flesh
Muscle sinew
And ash, dust, nothingness
How real
How aching the void
Take care
I drone like a parrot
That’s all I can say
For once unable to speak.