| A to Z by Kevin Frazier | ||
For Paul Frazier, 1942-1991 I was his oldest son. He needed AZT. "You're the one," he said, "who could try to get it for me." I said I would. I didn't. Didn't try. Didn't succeed. We drove across the country. He had lost sixty pounds. His arms were sticks. The prairie grounds stretched for miles around our car. The heat played tricks of shimmer and light at the top of the road, the asphalt track lined with tar. He walked into the shimmer. I wanted him back. I watched for him in every ripple, each glimmer of chrome, bright and harsh within the wavering horizon at the height of the slope. But I didn't see how he could hope to ever return. KEVIN FRAZIER works for the European Union. He is one of the leaders of Media Barents, a joint Russian-EU project to develop the film and television industry in the Barents region, including Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. He has also worked for the Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. His poems and stories have appeared in TriQuarterly and Poetry Review, among other places. |