I Saw You
Ingrid Barnes

I saw you.
I never spoke to you
but I saw you
and that was enough.

I saw you standing there with blood pumping through your veins and life radiating from you
I saw with my own eyes that you were there
that you were alive

And now you’re not.

Just like that. You are gone.
A real living breathing creature gone hard and cold
You walked
and ran
and talked
and laughed
and now . . .
and I see how easily a person can simply be

snuffed out

like a candle flame

You could have been my sister or my father or my friend
You could have been me