800 People

SHERRY CRAVEN

May 30, 2020

I looked at chocolate brownie
dough in the bowl, stirred my
fifty strokes, and tried to grasp

800 Italians dying in one day,
the beautiful olive-skinned people
who love wine and song and gave

to us Bocelli and Michaelangelo
not to mention Leonardo Da Vinci.
I couldn’t imagine 800 dead in a golden
country of lovers and silvery olive trees.

All I could do was stare at the
velvety chocolate dough and
strain to think the unthinkable,

to conceive the inconceivable,
and to make a space in my heart
for 800 dead souls who gave their
spirits to the winds on the same day.

My mind spent the rest of the day
revolving around an axis of horror
and grief while my spoon stirred
around and round rich, sweet, chocolate.

SHERRY CRAVEN has published poetry in numerous journals and anthologies and has had a poetry collection Standing at the Window published by vacpoetry in Chicago. She has also had flash fiction and creative nonfiction published and read poetry on NPR, as well as being included in Quotable Texas Women.