Upstairs my husband sleeps,
while downstairs on flat screen
a man tries shoveling
through a sinkhole to grasp
his brother swallowed alive
while sleeping in his bed.
My husband, pillowed under
sorrow, dreams he can save
his brother lost in water.
He reaches out his hand
to pull him from the waves
onto permanent ground
or back into the boat
where they have anchored off
the diminishing shore.
Rescuers on CNN
grab the man shoveling
spade after futile spade
of dirt, but no one reaches
the brother who has sunk
beneath the bed of earth.