After Helene

I tried my best to save some of the photos.

Fishing trips, first cars,

and especially the beautiful woman who posed

on the couch in the matching shorts and crop top

on the bed in black lingerie.

The carpet was slick with the mud he had almost died in

something that lent a more respectable air

to the bikini poster on the inside of the closet door.

I briefly felt guilty because we had laughed that day

while the home which was now thick

with mold and almosts

had been washed filthy of the life it held.

But after some thought I knew

If it was our home, we would have laughed too