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photo
© 2014 jennifer wagner
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what is found
when we are
broken
down
to remnants, to
debris?
mementos,
photos,
things we treasured,
things we valued?
as i read the names
of the lost and missing
my
tongue
tasting
each L
each I
each F
each E
i gulp
tears
and time
91 years
71 years
69, 67, 66, 65, 64, 63,
61, 60 years
59, 58, 55, 53, 52 years
49, 47, 45, 41 years
36, 35, 31 years
23, 21 years
19 years
14 years
13 years
6 years
5 years
4 years
2 years
4 months
how quickly, each,
in a moment’s breath,
like the morning fog,
gone—
to be summed up
not by things
but by those who
cared,
who knew what made
them
more than mist.
© 2014 Jennifer
Wagner
As
of today there are 30 people confirmed dead and 17 still missing in the
landslide in Oso. I tried to get all the
ages of victims down here (some victims were the same age, of course); my
apologies for any I have missed.
The
team my husband is on will hand the baton to the next set of searchers and will
likely be able to come home tomorrow for much needed rest. We haven’t seen him since he left to be a
part of the search but we have been able to talk. He has some heartbreaking and amazing
stories.