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Tallahassee is cold in March.
We didn’t come here to relax.

Ten days in a hospital bed,
his future: uncertain.

Ours too.

His memory is gone.
It’s not coming back.

She was wrong, of course.
Hardly tactful but wrong.

TV spelling bees
and a red balloon
from friends at school –
conflated memories.

On his release
we drove to the Gulf,
the magnificent ocean.

Warmer, though
not
tropical.

It is March, after all.

Crazy gulls
swoop down on us from
pale gray skies.

It feels good to laugh.

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Hades itself towered overhead.
The hellmouth’s
gaping,
fiery,
seven-ten split
bade her an ominous welcome.

Roar of flames,
maniacal laughter,
roasted flesh,
severed tongues.

Welter of limbs,
eternity of battered teeth
splintered skulls
crushed bones
and a grieving of souls
mocked and embraced her.

This is as it should be.

The truth of his words
obliterated her last glimpse of the sun.
Reficul’s terrible voice
filled the hall.

Legna looked away.
A few minutes to consider?

He stroked her cheek
and softly hummed.
Of course, of course.
Take whatever time you require.
But you already know
what it is you must do.