He moved slowly toward the door.
They didn’t even look
in his direction.
The sound of his retreating footsteps
was enough.
Then he was gone.
The family was in shock.
Then despondent.
Everybody slumped on
the parlor couch
without the willpower
to turn on the television,
decide what to watch.
Faces soured into disbelief.
The air left the room
before finally oozing its way back.
Breaths came hard at first.
Words even harder.
Without him,
everyone had to reconsider
their relationship to
the ones that remained.
Each in turn
was observed and absorbed.
