How Empty

by Lysana

Linked series of six haiku for the episode, "Skin of Evil." Data told Captain Picard that his thoughts were not for Tasha, but for himself: "how empty it will be without her." He asked if he'd missed the point, and Jean-Luc said, "No, you got it exactly." But did Jean-Luc himself miss something vital? And more importantly, did we? I know I did, for many years... What do you feel?

It will be empty
for Data and his crewmates
without their dear friend.

How empty is it
for Armus, who has lost all
his people and hope?

How empty is it
to grieve the death of one soul,
however worthy,

while leaving behind
another soul in deep pain,
denying him hope?

I think that Tasha,
survivor of pain herself
and abandonment,

would have grieved for him,
and understood his anguish,
if she had survived.