Suspense
by Gaetan Sgro
JAMA
—after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Since in the end the screens turned black
and the plane’s last known position
fixed in the searcher’s eyes
a shimmering trail of fluorescence
in a sense her flight remains
suspended between clouds
and currents, between languages
and continents, between anticipation
and regret. For the husband left behind
learns to draw from his routine
a new life reified by absence—still life
with crimson roses, the fellowship of silence
over breakfast, the apparition of those patterns
in the closet, on every wire
her silhouette. Each night
the tide returns he finds
the dark earth rippled silver
as he rocks their restless daughter
their cries fly out together
like cranes across the water.