Show nothing

Don’t flinch

Don’t blink

Face blank

But not set to stone

No intake of breath

No outtake as spent as a sigh

Or “Oh” more breath than sound spoken long as a clerical dirge

Definitely do not let the scream escape

Stay upright

Spine straight

Do not pool into the floor

A cascade of tears

It’s not real

Can’t be real

I deny this

I refuse this

It is not real

Frame broken

Still the house stands

For all the world a pleasant country cottage

Not the “homey” and yet generic family room of a sterile hospital

Holding echoes of lives undone

(Does not follow the Prompt as it contains internal dialogue. Also, last stanza is metaphor- not description. And yet, it is a start.)