Tragedy

narrative verse

 

Tragedy

 

 Your child is dead his soul has fled

Far from the little world he knew

To frail to live the Doctor said

and this prognosis has proved true.

 

You have no choice but to accept

that there was nothing to be done.

There was no way you could have kept.

Your well beloved infant son.

 

The doctors did their very best.

Could not avert this tragedy.

His tiny body is at rest

but now his soul is flying free.

 

The vicar tries to comfort you

 his words are falling on deaf ears.

You can’t believe his words are true.

You are too busy shedding tears.

 

To listen to him carefully

You wish that he would go away

 and leave you to your misery.

 You’d rather weep than hear him pray.

 

What good is prayer your child is dead.

That is the grim reality

You have to face the years ahead

Without the child you thought would be.

 

The answer to your cherished dreams.

The perfect child you’ve waited for.

But it was not to be it seems.

There is no way you can restore.

 

The faith in God you used to have.

What God would let an infant die?

When he had the power to save.

The ultimate in cruelty.

 

Your baby never had a chance.

He could not even breathe alone.

His lungs deformed by some mischance.

Perhaps its better he has gone.

 

Although you cannot possibly

accept this explanation.

In time to come quite probably

You‘ll alter your opinion.

 

Because you’ll come to realise

the extent of his suffering.

That sometimes when a baby dies

He gains relief that death can bring.

 

The memories he leaves behind

No one can ever take from you.

Although it seems fate was unkind.

I think deep in your heart you knew.

 

He was too sickly to survive.

Nature corrected her mistake

He should not have been born alive

 and let him die for pity’s sake.

 

Would you have rather that he stayed

 to face a life of constant pain.

This the price he would have paid

Your own good sense will make this plain.

 

Although I truly sympathise.

To lose a child a tragedy.

I cannot really empathise

I’ve never lost a child you see.

 

17/08/200

Http:// blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers

 

 

 

Reviews

[Tate Morgan]

That was very good
tate

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This is a very touching and moving sentiment. I am most interested in the ways that different cultures view death. In my personal opinion, death is nothing but a cheap parlor trick performed by an amateur magician. He makes the person disappear but can not bring them back. But since energy cannot be created nor destroyed (the first law of thermo-dynamics) and since we as sentient beings are primarily energy (even our thoughts are transmitted through electrical pulses firing between the synapses in our brains) then we are, even by a scientific definition, incapable of being destroyed. This thing we call death is only a part of the jouney we call life and it is not the final destination. Many native American tribes have no fear or remorse for death in their religious teachings. But modern man has turned a natural process into a thing of fear and terror. I hope when I die they burn my body and get on with the business of living. I see nothing to be gained in crying and moaning over an inevitability that is as certain to overcome those left here as it has done to me. I understand the grieving process. I simply think it is due to a misunderstanding of what "death" truly is. I was not afraid to be born into this world ( in retrospect, I probably should have been terrified) lol (perhaps that is why babies cry when they are born?) But you have really made me think with this piece and I could not ask more from any piece of poetry!