Dead Letter Office

Jesse Doiron

April 9, 2023

Dear Hitchhiker, 

You were the one with the heavy hammer hidden away. 

The other guy had an obvious stammer that made him  

hard to understand, but you were such a damn smooth- 

talking-son-of-a-bitch, I thought it might be better if the  

two of you switched places. So when you asked me to  

pull over for a piss, I agreed, hoping when you got back  

to the van, you’d sit way over on the other side instead of  

right behind. But no, you didn’t miss a chance to settle  

in again, right there where you were just before I stopped. 

And you didn’t miss my head either, that was awful clear,  

‘cause, when they found the hammer by me in your piss,  

I was dead. 

Jesse Doiron spent 13 years overseas in countries where he often felt as if he were a “thing” that had human qualities but couldn’t communicate them. He teaches college in Texas, now, to people a third his age. He still feels, often, as if he is a “thing” that has human qualities but can’t communicate them.