Everything / Nothing

‘Write your happiest moment,’ 

the teacher instructs. I fly – 

not to the birth of either child, nor

wedding their father, not graduation,

not even breathing freedom 

after two huge years 

of Wicked Stepmother – 

but standing in your arms

briefly … everything 

winding down to zero.

Written in response to Quadrille  #237: Zero at dVerse.

(A poem of exactly 44 words, including the word zero.)

And also in response to an exercise in writing teacher Natalie Goldberg's book for memoir writers: Old Friend from Far Away.