Half Lit / Half Shadow by Susan Tepper

What privileges afforded 

the dead—

Are the dead lined up 

against stark dry wall

yellowed and crumbling

in the half lit / 

half shadow

Given their moment.

To record grievances 

obsessions, omissions.

To push back 

take a comb to their hair

preserve dignity.

Pretend still part of

the still living.

Susan Tepper is the author of eight published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book just out in June is a road novel titled “What Drives Men.” It was shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.