A PRAYER

Like a firefly cupped in my hand,
I hold my own little sun.

Perturbations roll away from the moon
Revolving through my mind.

- James McColley Eilers, 2007

At the two-room school house in Roselawn, Indiana, Jimmy Eilers pretended to be one of the tough ones. His girlfriend, Judy Massey, standing in front of him, was much more tough. Must have been her sadistic mother who insisted the tomboy put a ribbon in her hair for the school picture. That town, mostly of poor people and dysfunctional people, pulled Judy down. As he escaped, Jimmy watched her drown. She is one of those who will always live in one of the rooms, covered in wallpaper roses, in the blue hotel where all his remembered loved ones live. Jimmy, now known as James or Jim, escaped the poor village, ironically called Roselawn (dirt roads, no roses), and he is still keeping his head above water. He is about to turn 70. "I may have to say hello to 70," he says, "but I never intend to say good-bye to '69'."
Why was he always wearing that silly little smirk? Infected with irony at an early age.