Dirk McDermott
Fellow Scout who could climb and touch the gold ball at the top of the flagpole, and do math three grades ahead under his crewcut. I need a calculator to figure how long since I spoke his name. How long since I offered my own blue neckerchief to wipe his always runny nose. But last night in smoke, steam, and rain beside a wrecked train I told him how happy I felt in the igloo we’d built, how handsome a cub he’d been crawling on all fours up the twilit tunnel to me. In a hoarse whisper and never looking at his face.
Patrick Donnelly















