The child lay dead—
yellow cervical collar stained with blood.
The plastic tube that once sustained, the breath of life
stands sad and lonely sentry over heroic efforts,
shifted now toward preparing sacred space
to contain a family’s grief.
This little one’s nurse attends
the small lifeless body, in all gentleness and compassion,
crying eyes which shed no tears.
Prayer offered, in earnest compassion, in the midst of unimaginable horror—
the washing of the blood from the mother’s dead child
gentle placing of clean gauze and sheets over sheer horror
gaping wounds which took this young life.
The Nurse’s Lament Psalm,
a holy offering of preparation
a place of gentle holding for a family’s unimaginable grief.
Amen.
yellow cervical collar stained with blood.
The plastic tube that once sustained, the breath of life
stands sad and lonely sentry over heroic efforts,
shifted now toward preparing sacred space
to contain a family’s grief.
This little one’s nurse attends
the small lifeless body, in all gentleness and compassion,
crying eyes which shed no tears.
Prayer offered, in earnest compassion, in the midst of unimaginable horror—
the washing of the blood from the mother’s dead child
gentle placing of clean gauze and sheets over sheer horror
gaping wounds which took this young life.
The Nurse’s Lament Psalm,
a holy offering of preparation
a place of gentle holding for a family’s unimaginable grief.
Amen.
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