Copyright ©1998, Christine

She irons his shirt over and over, a ritual to remember the man she once called, "Husband".

Behind cut-out palm trees paid mourners cry with hopes she'll awaken to what's happened here.

They were happy once, right? Drive-in movies, the couple who could not get close enough, now separate as far as they can from each other. Children play in the small plastic pool. Mother blows her nails, confident that she has the leisure for such a thing while the whirring of a lawnmower lulls them into a false-suburban security.

A soldier patrols the perimeter. He was told, when the grief finally strikes, they'll realize their little piece of Earth has imploded. In that first awareness their world falls apart.