To the Bridge

by Nancy Rommelmann

Mikal Gilmore, brother of executed murderer Gary Gilmore, explored this condition in his memoir, Shot in the Heart. “Individual

murders could be solved or punished, but murder itself, of course, could never be solved,” he wrote. “That could not be done without solving the human heart, and without solving the history that has rendered the heart so dark and desolate.”

The state can’t seem to keep the roads paved; you think we should trust them with life-and-death decisions?”

“Psychopaths tend to see any social exchange as a ‘feeding opportunity,’

contest or a test of wills in which there can be only one winner,”

“Their motives are to manipulate and take, ruthlessly and without remorse.”

We do not assume the motives of others are custom made to fool us, that they will dangle a morsel made of our best morality until we take the bait.

Just as her children were almost wholly out of her grasp, so too was her sense of self.