Dark dark spot

last night i had a dream
a bad dream

featuring the death of Margaret Atwood
newspapers turning into cast iron pans for cooking pancakes
and the end of the world

today i got a phone call
the kind of phone call i never wish to ever have again

my daughter was missing
no you say
yes says i

to put you out of concern and to make sure dear reader
you do not plunge head long into the green running river
i dreamt of last night

i can say she was found

safe
sound

she had taken it upon herself to leave the school yard at lunch time
to take a walk
with a following friend in tow

she was looking she said for a new house
having heard us mulling the idea in a fantastical not now kind of way

lucky for me
my sister was in the kitchen
and said

don't panic
....Yet'

i sat for five minutes
void, in shock
horrified
the worse living dream
real

the phone again rings
found,
brought back by Lula the crossing guard

and my heart ticks again
to the beat of never again never again never again

dark spot on this day
the darkest i have know