“We lost you 13 years ago. Life is hard without you. The loss has changed us all. I just wish things had worked out different for you. We will always love and miss you forever.”
– published in the Omaha World Herald on 7/8/2022
Dear Frank,
Despite having never met you
or your family, this note grabs
my attention as I eagerly browse
the daily obits online to find
someone with my birth year,
to discover a lucky escapee.
Do ghosts read newspapers? Why
announce to Omaha that 13 years
have passed without you? Why
broadcast that you’re missed
as if you’re passing the days
in a park on a bench with a coffee,
unfolding and folding the paper,
balancing it on your knee, searching
for your name, for this plea?
Do you feel lost? Do you need
a reminder of their names—
the people who loved you—
of the city that once held you,
of the things that didn’t work out
and the number of years
your dear ones have struggled?
I doubt your ghost reads the paper,
but what do I know?
