Task

By Sara Kandler

For the children and teachers slain in Uvalde, Texas, and their heartbroken families.

I’m working on goodbye

its incarnations

and stages

how at first I do not cry

but feel release

even smile inside

welcoming

the stillness the end and the beginning

Now it’s the unraveling

thumbnails digging beneath

a thick orange peel

spiraling toward infinity

suddenly

a skid

skin tears

time’s up

the calm sectioning

then rinsing of

my sticky fingers

because that’s what one does

complete the task at hand

stay the course

make the calls

line up the belongings

pass through doorways

barely noticing the arc of the sun

the dimming sky

and the deepening heartache of

a brand new strain of

loneliness