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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Excerpts from the Plague Years the Down in the Dirt Jan.-April 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page Jan.-April 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

We Knew His Name

Madlynn Haber

We knew his name.
The man in the wheelchair
who had no voice, with
leg straight out, unbendable,
arm bent, stuck, immobile.

Bright eyes, off beat smile,
a board with an alphabet
for pointing out a greeting,
an answer, directions.

Maneuvering with the other
hand, the good one, his chair
pacing the hallways
circling the building where
he lived with the elderly,
the infirm, though he was neither.

We knew his name but not
his story, not where he
came from or how he
got stuck in that chair.

Swiftly, he ran errands,
carried deliveries,
answered calls, ushered
visitors. Calmly, he sat by
the side of those left alone.

One day without warning
they told us he died.
We never knew where
he came from, never
heard he was ill. Expected
him to be there. Then he wasn’t.
All we knew was his name.

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