They have come back
but their eyes reject the sun.
They gaze at it
as into something dark
or as the blind gaze unblinking
into those depths
that only they can see.
Something has been removed from them
and not replaced.
They have died without aging
but they have not lain down.
They are ghosts haunting
their own flesh.
They are windows painted black.
We sent them where
we would not go.
Now they return
to regale us
with the horror of their silence.
FIRE 21, p 15; Albert Huffstickler