Tim Hunt |
The following piece appeared in our first (Summer 2002) issue.
The child should not have lived -- can not,
but you cannot bear her to die
You do not see the light
why you are here
I do not pretend to understand the lullabye
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Night Shift, First Death (Children's Hospital, Seattle)
for Susan
by Tim Hunt
and someone wheels it to an empty room.
The parents do not come
and perhaps it's best.
alone, though she cannot know
she is alone and dying.
And these hours after the night of work
you rock to the slow stilling
in an empty room.
grow around the curtain
and do not hear your singing,
until you stop as if wondering
without a name or past --
a slat of glare
where the curtains do not meet.
of death as you turn in this dark
and become hers again and we wait to see
what light will come,
but for this, I know, we are human
and must not turn away.
Valerie Polichar, Editor
Grasslimb
P.O. Box 420816
San Diego, CA 92142-0816