Alec Solomita’s fiction has appeared in the Southwest Review, The Mississippi Review, Southword Journal, and The Drum (audio), among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal. His poetry has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, The Galway Review, Bold + Italic, Litbreak, Subterranean Blue Poetry, The Blue Nib, Red Dirt Forum, and elsewhere.  His chapbook, “Do Not Forsake Me,” was published in 2017 and is still available at Finishing Line Press and Amazon. His first full-length book of poetry was published last April by Kelsay Press. He’s working on another. He lives in Massachusetts.

The Other Brother

Michael and Richard
spent their first days
together and tiny
in the neonatal care unit,
incubated and breathing,
roseate as mint moths.
Michael’s eyes followed
nurses and doctors, Richard’s
were shut while his ventilator
filled his nose and mouth.
In four days, Richard’s
breath stopped just as
his eyes popped open.

Michael didn’t miss his
brother (we don’t really know)
until he reached
the age of four, and maybe
not then.

but at around that time,
his night terrors began.
Michael screamed in his sleep
howled, cried, spoke stutters.
We couldn’t wake him,
the small family that
surrounded him on his shaking bed.
We felt terror, our eyes meeting for succor.
We shouted, shook, and hugged
our Michael, his thin white legs
quivering and his eyes shut closed

After more than half an hour,
he started to drag himself from
his world: the horrors he was seeing,
the emptiness he was feeling,
the anguish that left us reeling.