Misery is for Misers [prose poem]

A worked-to-death body found floating in a river. A body discarded in water. The culprits had heard something about washing away sins.

Ablutions taken in the Ganges she had talked about. A film I saw when I was a boy remains forgotten except for occasional slivers of pictures, still. What can I say that would allow you to say something? There’s nothing but human misery heaped on human misery.

A girl I once knew when I was a boy had grown up to say many years after when we were almost adults, There is no human without the humane.

Misereri is Latin for mercy? How are misers merciful? To have compassion for themselves is what the miser has. His greed, if you will, is provoked by his self-pity.

What the f*#@ are you saying? Someone asks without hesitation.

It’s coincidence, don’t you know that, an angry bum said talking to two Columbia students uptown by one-hundred and tenth and Broadway.

Miser is coincidental with the Latin miserere or misereri. 

 

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