Like Clockwork

I must have gotten up every ten minutes
checking carbon monoxide levels.

Sometimes it seems nothing happens 
until everything happens; a sudden storm,
unrelated events that turn out to be related.
Friends and loved-ones remember how pale
she looked, how strange he acted near the end.
Mere acquaintances huddle to remember
heralding signs and debate what went wrong.

I found her on the couch with the dog.
But the tree never fell through our bedroom roof.
Just as cancer never appeared in the x-ray
and the furnace, though spewing something noxious,
never registered even one part per million
of toxic, odorless gas.  Still, morning
found us both feeling dizzy and disoriented
while the alarm buzzed all through breakfast.

-Poets and Artists, 2011, Print only.