And what is a happy story anyway?

The Purgatory story is the one people suffer through. It talks back.

The beautiful story is one sentence,

makes you cry or put down the book,

or go buy a candle to light and say thank you.

Who is that beautiful woman in Purgatory? I knew her when.

She is thinking about the skin of his arm at her cheek

as she exhales and is not afraid at this moment.

She gives him everything.

There is another room in Purgatory where she is alone

with what she has done and he is nowhere to be seen.

She was born to lift heavy things.

She lifts her arm to flex and kiss the muscle that keeps

her turning over the rocks where all that stuff is alive.

It is not pretty but it is fascinating

and she may yet find the sentence that is beautiful.