Inappropriate Decibels

The air was thick with lilies and the weight

of all the things we didn't get to say.

The priest was speaking of the narrow gate

and how the spirit finally finds its way.

Then came a sound, a long and hollow groan,

a structural collapse inside his gut.

It echoed off the altar's polished stone

before his heavy hand could keep it shut.

I looked at Sarah, saw her shoulders shake,

the way her knuckle pressed against her nose.

We were a pair of flaws inside the wake,

a burst of static where the silence grows.