Water Flowing Underground

Candy making with my daughter, carolers
crooning. Christmas coming,
I thought about the girl next door.

No stuffed animal, no cross marked
the spot where she
jumped. I knew her like you know

your mailman—a wave, a smile. Sometimes
she played soccer in the cul-de-sac,
carried a violin. I’d like to think her parents

made some mistake, something I would
never do, but last month, my daughter decided
this was not her beautiful life.

It took the police hours to find her. When she left,
I was watching Transparent and drinking wine.

She walked right past me.

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Kelly Fordon is the author of I Have the Answer, a short story collection from Wayne State University Press, 2020, Goodbye Toothless House, a poetry collection, Kattywompus Press, Spring 2019 and Garden for the Blind, a short story collection, Wayne State University Press, 2015, as well as three poetry chapbooks. More at www.kellyfordon.com.