What does a boy do at four?
Play and dream –
But not one fighting for his life
Good Friday/April/2000/Easter weekend
Early morning
Lying stiff as the bed boards that support him
Eyes rolled back in his head –
You only see the whites
The sheets pulled down at his side
Something attacked him that night
Something came onto him with a terrible fright
The ambulance takes him away
Sirens blaring/tied to a stretcher
Tubes, catheters/no answers
Do a spinal/still unconscious
In a coma
Waiting in doctors’ offices filled with diplomas

It’s like being hit by lightening
That’s the chances of his recovering
Meningitis/Encephalitis
They pull the drapes in the ICU
You recite it
He’ll need to learn to walk again,
to talk, to feed himself
And then –
His cognitive functioning will be extremely limited
And the seizures/and spasms
Can’t believe that this has happened

But this was just the beginning -
Of a lengthy two year stay at Franciscans
Every day at the hospital
While his younger brother stayed with your schizophrenic father
Who just came out of McLean himself
Whose own brain was damaged from mental health
You’ve seen it growing up
And now in your child
Something so horrible it can’t be defined
Something that comes in the night and takes your mind
What does a boy do at four?
Learn to play and dream once more -