Fire and Ice
©May 30th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

There is a shadow on her heart as she sits here, alone on the bench, looking across the river.

There’s a twin shadow on the city which she loves, and which she will never visit again.

Fifteen years ago, the debris of humanity rained down among fire and ash and smoke.

A memory smites her heart:  A man at ease, falling through the sky.

Who he was she will never know – but she knows why he fell, for, if given a choice, she would choose to fly. 

She does not wish to know his name.  She knows her own true love hadn’t returned home that day.  Had he been up there?

Amidst the stinging winds of February, with crunched-up snow at her feet, a river of ice runs through her veins.

And though her warm cheeks are wet, her face burns like flame, and her eyes mirror smoke, she shivers.