the beam glows brighter than
the sun on the day when
i spoke to my friend for one of
the last times and i remember it was
a summer afternoon and
it was so hot that
i thought the roads would boil like
concrete and we were
at a baseball game when he
turned to me and said
i can't believe it's been all
these years and we're still
hanging out like we used to back
in our elementary school days and
i hope we never stop and i
told him not to worry and that
we never would but i knew
that i couldn't promise him that and
sure enough after high school we
started calling each other less and
less until we never heard from
each other except when we would
bump into one another at the
grocery store and spend half an
hour catching up and swear that
we would start reconnecting before
going home and forgetting again but i
still hear about him every so often and
i know that he still lives around
here with his wife and two children and his
aging mother and i wish i could
save them in some sort of
teleportation machine but
all i can do is hope that
i'll find him somewhere in
the roaring acid flames of hell and i'll
be able to tell him that i'm sorry and
that i did
everything i could
and the beam does not give.
it's been a few days.
i left my house
for the first time today
since it happened.
i'm just getting home
from the park.
in the living room,
my wife is playing
with our two daughters.
they grin and giggle
as she moves a toy airplane
through the air
and makes vrooming noises.
i reach for the phone.