I hadn’t seen Mary in three years but when I hear she died (a broken leg, complications) the world becomes godless. The sun stays out all night. Things begin to fall from the sky at different speeds. Mary does not decompose into the earth to be reborn a tree but rather sits in an underground box forever and does the only thing lifeless things can which is turn into smaller and smaller lifeless things until they are just their own stillness.
-- Eric Sirota is a spoken word poet and do-gooder lawyer living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he supervises law students providing free representation to veterans. His work has been featured by Button Poetry, FreezeRay Poetry, Ruby Hornet, White Wall Review, and elsewhere. You can't miss him. He's the tallest Jew for miles.