He had been taken from me twice before and many times in between.

Before it happened,

he would tell me that the children were in the forest, playing at the peach blossom fountain.

Before it happened,

we rubbed his beard with rosemary and smelled his perfumed hairs.

Before it happened,

we would lay together, silently, both lucid under white shades.

Before it happened,

I thought I would have heard it, but no sound was made at all.

The day before it happened,

I could feel them lying awake begging to God for something.

They said it happened in a grocery store.

But when it happened,

His body stayed alive for seven days.

When it happened,

A white Heron flew overhead in 20 mph winds.

When it happened,

I could hear a thick gas in my ears, thinning as I listened closely and twitched.

When it happened,

I strained to be silent, waiting for his return.

She told me what they were able to recover after it happened.

His veins and arteries.

His bone and soft tissue.

His skin.

After it happened,

I could see that the children were in the forest again, playing at the peach blossom fountain.