A Litany

A Litany
Gregory Orr

I remember him falling beside me,
the dark stain already seeping across his parka hood.
I remember screaming and running the half mile to our house.
I remember hiding in my room.
I remember that it was hard to breathe
and that I kept the door shut in terror that someone would enter.
I remember pressing my knuckles into my eyes.
I remember looking out the window once
at where an ambulence had backed up
over the lawn to the front door.
I remember someone hung from a tree near the barn
the deer we'd killed just before I shot my brother.
I remember toward evening someone came with soup.
I slurped it down, unable to look up.
In the bowl, among the vegetable chunks,
pale shapes of the alphabet bobbed at random
or lay in the shallow spoon.

QUESTIONS

1. How did you feel when reading this poem?

2. What is the tone of this poem? What gives it this tone? What is the effect of this tone?

3. What is a litany? How is this poem a litany?

4. There are many striking images in this poem. Which one struck you the most? Why?

The poet, Gregory Orr, talks about the origins of this poem here.