tommy hope

Originally posted on July 4, 2005.   Formerly titled “tommy l’esperance.”

tommy hope
was eddie hope’s brother

eddie hope
was my friend
who died at ten
when a big dodge caught him
tipped him ass over head
dragged him from here to ramelli ford
and that was pretty far back then
pretty far to us at ten

tommy hope
eddie’s brother
had two other brothers on smack
a father on the bottle
a mother who looked sixty at thirty-five
they all died early too

tommy hope
eddie’s brother
got killed a week ago
shot by a homeowner who caught him
falling out of the second story window
onto the back porch roof
trying to hold onto a microwave
during a half-assed burgling

i went to tommy’s funeral
there were some fat guys
with stringy hair
and short ties
a couple of tommy’s kids
all snotted up and whining
while his girlfriend kept going out
for a smoke

when i was ten no one was my friend
the way eddie hope was my friend
so i went to tommy’s funeral
because tommy was eddie’s brother
and eddie would have wanted me to go

i looked into tommy’s face

if when alive
he’d passed me somewhere
or robbed me somewhere
i would never have known him
all i remember of him 
was that he was a sometimes annoying
little tagalong
who hung around me after eddie died
until they moved to woonsocket
and i never heard from them again

after the car dragged eddie
his face remained intact
he looked like himself
when they put him in the ground
thus rendering him 
the only member of his family
to remain forever
beautiful
uncorrupted and
beyond my judgment