Caseworker Takes Notes

Caseworker Takes Notes I was there the day there trickled down the wall of an old man's room one roach that stopped across a canyon in the plaster till the old man's elevated slipper fell. The roach absorbed the blow and as though perforated for that purpose dissolved into an archipelago. The old man looked at me and patiently explained, "Despite my constant smacking of its brethren one roach each day will trickle down that wall and pause and pose as if to say, ‘Go ahead and smack me, that's okay.'" To take advantage of the archipelago at hand the old man pointed toward the last palpitating island and once again explained, "Each roach I smack, you see, offers me that same good-bye-- one last flicker of antennae." Donal Mahoney