Tag Archives: helicopter

4 Days Gone

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Who knew the bosom of Abraham was the ICU at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital or that anybody could become impatient with the nearly-returned-from-the-grave, this is sleeping beauty territory, he says, so many years after the event, as he stays with me through the insomniac watches of the night. You see only a muted scrim at first, but later you see so much more, the way time can be a tomb, and you in it, Lazarus,

It is He who always has

Walked in and out of these rooms with me

Delivering Light

Do you miss him?

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In the midst of a morning of futility (guarantees are often NOT guaranteed) my young son asks me if I miss my father–a man who died before he was born.

I say yes
Infinite sadness
I tell him yes. I do.

I tell him that he looks a bit like his grandfather and that helps. He asks if his grandfather likes the athletic wear he favors.

He is so good at connecting himself
To the identities of ghosts
This fully living child
I love.

Head injuries

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The pictures are often similar–tiny faces surrounded by tubes, bruised little faces and bodies.

Shaken babies.
So heartbreaking, so preventable.

In 2007 my father died as the result of head injuries from a helicopter crash. What happened to him was painful, traumatic and deadly. But he knew the risks.

I compare the last stage, the dying stage, of my father’s life to the pictures I see of small children abused to death by caregivers.

No helicopters
No choice
No escape

And no reason on earth why we should look the other way while more than 5 children a day are abused to death in America.

Shame on us.
Do something