The Remarkable Objectivity of Your Old Friends
We did right by your death and went out, Right away, to a public place to drink, To be with each other, to face it. We called other friends—the ones Your mother hadn't called—and told them What you had decided, and some said What you did was right; it was the thing You wanted and we'd just have to live With that, that your life had been one Long misery and they could see why you Had chosen that, no matter what any of us Thought about it, and anyway, one said, Most of us abandoned each other a long Time ago and we'd have to face that If we had any hope of getting it right.
From American Prodigal by Liam Rector, published by Story Line Press. Copyright © 1994 by Liam Rector. Reprinted by permission of the author and Story Line Press.