What do the living know
about the dead? I was called upon
to wonder when the well-meaning
camp director’s wife who knew
parts of my family asked
where I stood in relation
to the brother who’d died, she had heard.
Died? I said. Yes, I believe, cancer,
she said. Oh, I said, that,
I believe, was me, and I am yet”
even taking odd pleasure along
with the pang of being a ghost”
among the living.
(What do, after all, the living
know about the dead, me included?)
James Andrew Miller is author of “Other Plans: Journal of an Illness,” FT, March.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Holding Things Together
So many streets around me are ugly. I do a lot of walking and jogging. I notice…
Ban the Books
Walk into a bookstore anywhere in the country. Chances are that, somewhere toward the front, you’ll see…
How the Press Lost Public Trust
In the latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Tara Henley joins…
