MIDDLE 9. Body Bag

9. BODY BAG

My turn in the cancer ward

this afternoon,

Be with Clara

While Jill has a break.

Commute to hospital

Take lift to Clara’s floor.

Lift doors open, reveal

Grisly sight:

Attendants wheeling trolley,

A body, in a body bag.

Lightning bolt shock

Fear

Clara!

No, no, no!

I hasten down the corridor

To Clara’s room.

There, sitting up in bed, smiling,

Is Clara.

Hi Dad!

Hi Clara!

So, not this time.

Today

Someone else’s child is in the body bag

Today

Someone else gets the knife in the heart.

12 May 2012