slowly, i am working my way
through a collection of memoirs
of survivors of a pot
reading the short histories
one or two at a time
each different but the same

i made the mistake of looking at reviews
of a few disappointed readers wanting more
engaging narratives
varied stories
than the list-like quality of some accounts

as if the point was to hook a reader
as if these truths
these memories of death
needed to be told in anything
but numbed voices