Lifeline Poetry Challenge
30 Days
the time it takes for lives to be set on a new path, changed forever
Week 1 The Gloaming
What wakes a child in the night?
Sounds from the hall,
an urge to use the bathroom,
the weight of the faint light in the room,
the gloaming between death and a new life not yet defined.
Through my doorway, I see them,
sentries along the wall.
The smell of the wet wool of their dark coats fills the nose
on the cold winter chill that they carried inside.
Shoulder to shoulder, their caps pulled low,
the bright light of the hall casts their faces in shadow.
I know this look, my father.
They must be his friends.
A woman, our neighbor?
pushes me back into the room, into the darkness
except for the sliver of light from the hall through the cracked open doorway.
An arrow pointing straight to me.
Shush, she tells me. You can’t come out yet.
I hear it then. I squeeze past her.
I see the sentries’ heads turn, synchronized, to the sound.
My mother wailing.
Her deep-throated cry rising above the weight of grief.
Not one man moves…
