Ani's Home

We lost our daughter Ani to Lupus a few days after her 12th birthday. The virtual world of the Internet helps to keep her moments alive and share them with others. The first posting was on August 2005 To read all past postings from 2005 onward, please go to https://toani.blogspot.com/ and you will see all the previous entries listed. Click on the one you wish to read.

Friday, March 07, 2014

Hazel Eyes Shutting




The curtain was pulled
Like on a toy train track
Around the bed where a lovely life
A short while ago, went to shock

The paediatric ICU beds were full
Balloons, IV tubes, even a priest was there
July was upon the Port of Baltimore
Yet nurses were teary-eyed, and only whispered

Sarah, the nurse who cared for those hazel eyes
Brought cotton balls and Q-tips to her side
The morphine had flattened the cardiogram
And bled her nose, for the last time

Mothers hugged their sons
In the beds near by
Fearing the Specter may, like the clown,
Go to the wrong bed to sing his lullaby

The priest stood without an outrage
Behind the curtain, looking at the floor
This was the second child, almost the same age
He had seen depart, after July fourth

Sarah wiped the child’s nose and silent lips as well
Then her own eyes, and with a steady hand
Sealed the nostrils in cotton, as if a goodnight kiss
Then hugged her mother, and retired without ease

The PICU was now quiet, even the monitors
Were turned down to shush their heartless beep
For life had become a passage, a simple colophon
In bed 18B, under the canopy of a graceful leap.


March 5, 2014

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2014