Don't Fall Asleep
Editor: Kent Bruyneel
Volume 33 Number 3, Don't Fall Asleep
Elaine Bander, S.E. Venart, Blaise Moritz, Andrew
Borkowski, Katia Grubisic, Hanako Masutani, Susan Telfer, Kenneth Wong,
A. Mary Murphy, Heather Cadsby, Craig Boyko, Cathy Stonehouse, Antony
Di Nardo, Rob Jones, John Reibetanz, Devin Krukoff, James Gill
Excerpt
by Elaine Bander
The night they killed the Rosenbergs, my father
came home early from the office, not
after we kids had eaten, as usual,
but at 5:30, when the day shift was over,
like most of the other dads on the street,
and my mother served us supper--salmon
croquettes, green beans, canned corn niblets--
on the white enameled kitchen table where
we always ate unless we had company
and used the cherrywood table in the dining area
The night they killed the Rosenbergs
my mother asked my father,
Do you think Sam will tell Lillian?
(her best friend across the street) because
Sam and Lillian didn't get the paper or
own a TV, didn't even have a dining-room table,
but a baby grand piano instead,
and my father said, I'm sure he won't tell her
until it's over, and my mother started to cry.
