The absent girl is
Conspicuous by her silence
Sitting at the courtroom window
Her cheek against the glass.
They pass her without a sound
And when they look for her face
Can only see the clock behind her skull;
Grey hair blinds her eyes
And night presses on the windowpanes,
She can feel the glass cold
But with no time for pain
Searches for a memory lost with muscle and blood —
She misses her ligaments and the marrow of her bones.
The clock chatters; with no beating heart
Lung or breast how can she tell the time?
Her skin is shadowed
Where once the early sunlight fell.