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.