The envelope came

from Child and Family Services.
I opened it. evils swarmed out
and exposed wounds.
a gun shot, a wife sounded
and pillowed her husband’s head.
an ambulance mourned its way
to the hospital.

a father kicked and a baby
sprawled on cold tile floors.
a building burned, a bridge
collapsed. a husband hated
and the angry blood ran down
his wife’s face. she straggled
her five assorted children
to a neighbour’s house
for salvation.

a family’s unbreakable world
shattered, and embers died
in the wood stove.
From the radio soothed
jesus loves me this I know,
while beer bottles staggered
and toppled in a drunken heap
on the floor.

I closed the envelope.
wounds healed,
hope survived, and thrived
amoung the evils.