Vigil

by Barbara Orlowska – Westwood.
Winner poetry open section.
The silent man
on a couch
is her husband.
He stopped talking
gradually a stream
drying in years of drought.
When prompted
Yes no I’m fine
still in his vocabulary.
The stream bed’s clay
dry craquelure no rain
will make it flow.
The man sits stares
all day at the TV volume off
or at the wall.
Open book on her lap
she watches him
remembering their past
she listens to the silence.