19.3.06

You know, Radical Ann Porter, RN, BSN said something to me that made a lot of sense here. She asked, "Has anyone died here?"

I had to answer sister that no, no one died here. At first I did. But now I realize that was not the case. We know how it is, we are 'in on it' w/our peculiar sense of bi-valency and the hardships of the UDA. No one died here.

So, I found this wonderful little place that wants some things for an anthology. The proceeds will go to parents who have lost a child. To me, that sounds like good penance and perhaps someone else might find it in their time to submit QUALITY work to them so that they have a great anthology to help the people we know so well, the survivors. Those like us.

http://www.poeticacceptance.com/story.html


Ode to UDAs

You, Davy D were a mystery with a dog named BeeBee
and a grandmother who looked little, Japanese.
You were handsome with that metal plate
in your head, so they said
but you never did wrong, that metal plate
so strong. Across the way
a world-record Spanish Sword Cactus
grew in front of your old shack,
the one you moved right into without a lease.
Your no-daddy no-mommy dialect
was a kind of silence, a law
never broken. Ask me no questions
I'll tell you no lies,
with a big metal plate in your head,
so they said. But once, oh once
in my lifetime I thought of you
in the hours after a trauma call.
The little thing in 4A was screaming,
the other eight were dead.
All us nurses wondered why,
so they called me over to speak Mexican
and this is all she said:

My mommy lost her head,
nine of us in the van.

Spoken in the code on the border,
all of its transgressions.
Davy D, do you remember me?

7 comments:

Erin said...

Thank you for this link, and for suggesting QUALITY submissions! I hope to receive many submissions for this project, unfortunately, the amount of submissions I've received has been small, and the quality has been, well... Less than desired.

I'd love to incorporate stories/poetry from nurses and doctors too. I think it would lend an important balance for the parents who've lost their children.

Again, thank you so much for posting my link!
~Erin

AZnurse said...

You are a smart woman. Once someone has shown you the picture - you see and move on. I am proud of you. In a landscape without high moral ground you did the good thing. High moral ground is easy. Everyone can see it and it requires little or no map reading ability or thought to get there. The landscape where all of your events had unfolded was low gound and populated with folks making their points by belittling others in both a general way and a targeted way. The good thing was never clearly visable and required personal reflection. You go girl!

AZnurse said...

Check the flickr site. I will up load a picture taken in Altar - The jumping off place in Mexico to start the deadly trip across the desert into the US. This time of year they freeze to death while searching for water. Soon it will be heat stroke in an even more desperate search for water.
Very moving piece.
I got Fred's book. How about I send it to Sarah's school PO Box?
Is that you calling on the phone with the operator saying your call can not be connected as dialed?

Carmenisacat said...

So that means you are still accepting submissions...I'll get on it as soon as I can.

Thanks Erin and good luck with this important work.

Clifford Duffy said...
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Carmenisacat said...
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Carmenisacat said...

There you go again Clifford Duffy. Now that that is over...I get no retraction of course. Ron Silliman apparently is er....a very unethical person who POSES.
In all actuality, it is a learning experience....you find Erin and you can hopefully help her because I know many poets who just want to be heard..they have something to say and need someone to say it to.

And parents who have lost children...well. This is the most terrible loss. I lost a child that wasn't mine once...I encouraged a surgery at the father's request...we knew it wouldn't help his speech. He had a very minor cleft palate, a 'notch'..already nine years old and speech already ingrained. Small heart defect and he died during intubation. The last time I saw Khaled Otaibi..he was sitting upright in bed and I asked if he was afraid.

He gave me a big cheerful "No!"
And he smiled the biggest smile, this surgery was going to change his life. I never saw him again and the docs couldn't bear to tell me that he'd been lost to a bad intubation. Not even anything to do with his actual problems which were indeed, very minor.

Devastated. And there were so many others...it would take hours to tell you what my sister Radical Ann Porter and I have seen and multiply that times the number of doctors and nurses in the world and you get a huge exponential sadness.

Good luck Erin. I delivered your link to my various friends. Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.