I never knew him to do wrong.
He left me here last Saturday week;
I never saw him again.
A terrible shock.
God was cruel to me.
Words cannot express... my heart is torn.
I have the others.
God spare them to me.
He was the loveliest of all.
My heart breaks day in and day out;
I am just now living for when...
He took a pain,
In the head;
He went to the hospital.
We don't know
What happened -
They didn't,
Until they got the blood test back,
From Dublin.
The next day the baby was born.
At twelve o'clock there was a crowd,
Neighbours waiting on the news.
They did all in their power.
He was dying.
Words that will ring in my ears...
It was the saddest... most respected
Funeral,
The teachers and children formed
A Guard;
A hundred met him at the Creamery Cross;
Carried the little coffin up the steps
And into the chapel.
Six school pals carried him,
From the chapel,
And left him to rest.
He'll never go off this earth
Without first coming to see me
(Mary, at two o'clock in the morning he came up the hall,
And rapped on the room door)
I do hope and pray
I'm not keeping him
From Heaven.
I wanted to write you to give you a surprise...
It was little thought it would be this sad news.
The baby... is the image of him.
My heart is torn.
I could be washed in tears.
This is called *Found Poetry*. I came across a letter my mother wrote in 1953, just days after the death of her first born son, Michael. My brother, Gerald, was born at the same time, so my mother never saw her son alive again. I hope I did justice to her grief and anguish.