A Heroic Feat

"And when the children raise up a giant shield of laughter,

 it's like they're fending off death" - Ani Difranco

In between hacking out his left lung,

he wants to know if he can see his pictures

he wants to know 

(cough cough)

what this button does

creating shadows with his fingers in front of the light

(cough)

wants to know who would destroy who Aquaman

(cough cough cough)

versus Magneto, you know, 

(cough)

like in real life.

I want to know how someone so sick

could be so happy.

What strange strength, what bionic force

coursed through his blood?

Carried his brain away from his body

so that he was not really in the Emergency Room

at all, but 

knee-deep in some creek bed asking the tadpoles

why the sky was blue.

I want to know

 Can I come too?

I have seen tiny smiles cracked from the corners

of the face that hours earlier had been mistaken

for punching bag.

Have watched the terminally ill transform into comedians

while Mom and Dad feigned laughter

for sorrow.
And who is this Tomorrow?
Who looms an omen over their beloved's bed. I have fled the hurried hands of death
While a baby girl curled quiet at its feet,
Cradling my sweet to sleep, I thought--

One thing I absolutely do know:
These super-humans are my heroes.

ABOUT: working at a children's hospital is as satisfying as it is heartbreaking
 Postscript: dialogue and details have been altered to protect my patients' privacy

Revelation 21:3, 4