An Expectation

She returns to ground zero
anticipating a lingering cloud
to remain outside of herself;
perhaps a haze as thick as
the memory that lays siege 
her mind, her being

like the smitten psychopath
who expects to see his love
at the subsequent funeral;
or the life-prisoner released
in his twilight years
grasping at threads of normalcy
from what had become
his security blanket.