Philadelphia

Back from my mother-in-law's in Philadelphia.

I didn't know the absence could take so much space -her small house was thick with the deads' breaths (including the dog's).

Christmas evening, D's mom and sister made fire.  Taking turns, they poked and turned the logs.  I watched.  When the flames flared and hissed, three of us stared into it for a while, in silence, as if listening to the house remembering the deads.