Two
Prayers
for the
LivingI: NOVENA FOR NICK
At times like this, I remember Reuben. I have tried to drive his memory from me, but he appears anyway, bringing with him Danny, both of them crowding the space with Nick. Their names run through my blood in bad times so that I’m afraid to open my mouth for fear of what will come out.
Marisa wipes sweat from above her eyes, tries once again to sit on the bottom of the two bridge railings. I hold Gemma to me although the day is hot. We are fifty or more here, all waiting for every word the military feeds us. We live on these because not to means falling completely.
Two days ago, although it seems many more, we got the call about Nick. “There’s been a hold-up,” said a man. And I wondered why didn’t my brother call? Gil is one of the vice,
