Florida Sinkhole

 

It was about eleven o’clock at night.  Everything was normal.

The man was getting ready for bed.

The TV was on.  The living room lights were on.

There were five other persons in the house:

Including the man’s wife, his brother, and his young daughter.

 

Then with a flashing crashing the floor gave way.

The floor broke apart, sinking into a hole in the earth.

Sinkhole. 

The man had been standing near the TV.

The TV went with the man into the earth

Yanking the cable from its moorings, but

 

The man had been standing next to the bed.

The bed went with the man into the earth

Leaving the mattress, by some quirk in the laws of physics,

Caught in the side of the hole, and

The TV cable

 

The man’s brother jumped into the hole

Propelled by love and flashing fear. 

 

The brother descended into the earth in vain .

At last report the man’s body had not been retrieved.

-March 3, 2013