Creating "The First Week of Shattered Dreams"

The first week after the death of a spouse is an indeterminable, agonizingly slow time for developing the intermittent realization that the deceased is not returning.  Not only is the world turned sideways, but what used to seem so natural now takes on the aura of another world.

Extract from "The First Week of Shattered Dreams"

This lone week plays as a century long,
With each new normal nothing more
Than a ridiculous display,
Aberrant,
A pretentious pageant with no real import."

Afterthoughts for "The First Week of Shattered Dreams"

Widow. The word consumes itself.

Sylvia Plath

For many women, becoming a widow does not just mean the heartache of losing a husband, but ofetn losing everything else as well.

Cherie Blair

He first deceased; she for a little tried to live without him, liked it not, and died.

Sir Henry Wooten