After the Accident Claine Keily # 117

Until one year after
the accident
she slept outside
listened to the rush
of the river
waiting to see
some effect in herself

Instead she thought mostly
of troubled factory workers
and those who had not been rehired

When she entered the place again
in which she had fallen
she thought of nothing
that could be mended
or installed

She thought then of the rumours
from during the time when
she had been in hospital
of those who said she had
been taken off to prison
and of the others in the house nearby
who denied they had heard her
scream in their garden
blackened by her need for help