Urns

1.

Sue is white and pale and she has a scarf wrapped around her neck. Sue has her mouth open and she has her eyes open. Sue looks like she is dead. Sue looks like she had the color taken out of her by a large sucking hose.

Sue is dead, Hank says. I can’t close her mouth, Marty says. Johan Johnson closed Harriet’s mouth in the Steal, Hank says. That is a movie, Marty says. Oh, Hank says.

2.

Why are her eyes still open, Sally asks. Sally works in the morgue and she washes dead bodies. Sally is from Eastern France. Sally eats sandwiches at the deli on 32nd and Broadway. The Deli is called Neil’s Deli. The sandwiches have turkey and cheese and lettuce and onions and the bread is usually toasted. They didn’t toast my bread today, Sally thinks.

3.

I couldn’t close her eyes, Marty says. Maybe she isn’t dead, Sally says. You have cheese on your shirt, Marty says. Heather carries Grace out of the morgue and puts her in the car. I don’t think she is dead, Sally says.

4.

Heather eats at the restaurant on the corner of 52nd and Park. The restaurant has a green awning and the waiters wear white shirts and black pants. You shouldn’t eat steak, Marty says. The wine at the restaurant is red and tastes like wet sand in the desert. They should name this place, Marty says.

5.

Hank runs along the water and looks at the freight ships go in and out of the harbor. The ships are big, Hank thinks. Hank stops running and takes his pulse. You should eat more cabbage, Dr. Levine says.

6.

I take drugs, Greg says and smiles. Greg has no teeth. Greg is homeless and dirty and wears clothes that are old and have holes in them. Don’t give him change, Sally says, I wash people like him everyday.

7.

Maybe she is dead, Marty says. I want a steak, Heather says. Sue sits in the car and stares at the windshield.


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