Rebecca Schumejda

Wednesday 

for John Dorsey 

 

I tell you that you will be alright.

I don’t tell you that if I could pick 

a day to die, it would be a Wednesday, 

tucked perfectly into the middle of the week

 

a small child, who tossed off the blankets, 

but is still asleep, birds chirping 

before sunrise and all the regrets 

pulled like worms to the surface. Cancer. 

 

One doctor told you it would be alright, no big deal 

then another took it back. There is a chance 

it didn’t spread to bone and brain, the sun 

coming up from behind slender trees, 

 

trees that grew too close together. Let me be 

the first to let you down. I did death three times

last year alone and I can’t again. An army of 

angels, standing at attention on the hill, 

 

in my backyard. Sunrise, Wednesday, cancer 

and birds that I can hear but cannot see.

The last thing my husband said to me was–

Can you bring me my moccasins? 

 

 

Rebecca Schumejda is the author of several full-length collections including: Cadillac Men (NYQ Books), Waiting at the Dead End Diner (Bottom Dog Press), and Sentenced (NYQ Books). She co-edits Trailer Park Quarterly. She received her MA in Poetics from San Francisco State University and her BA from SUNY New Paltz. She hides from the world in a little log cabin in the woods with her family. You can find her online at: rebecca-schumejda.com