Ed Burke

Joined February 2022

12 stories

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Poet, novelist, lawyer, father, friend. "Her Hands" is a novel in progress about Sarah, a transcendant healer serving during World War I. I will share the scenes taking form, consistently, until her saga is told. Ea/ Ed Burke on facebook

Stories (12)

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HER HANDS #12
Installment 12 Scenes 51 – 52 Chapter 6 The uniformed men, members of the Service des Santes des Armees and the Defence Ministry, of which the SSA was a part, sat at the large oak table motionless. The military and medical officers were about to address a matter which none of them remotely comprehended; the malaise, hysteria, imbecility which was being reported as running rampant through the ranks of the enlisted men at the front. First observed at the beginning of the war after the battle at Mons, increasing through the Charleroi engagement and ever more so through and since the Marne battle, the dispatches had reached these men of the highest order. Confident men all, accustomed to issuing orders that always mattered, yet none had the understanding nor the language to order a solution to the unprecedented situation as they had heard it described. That was why the military command had tasked the Medecin General Inspecteur and his command to regard the mass of imbeciles as more than a novel challenge of filling beds with the harmed, and discharging them when healed.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #11
Installment 11 Chapter 5 Scenes 45-50 After their meal, the women returned to the damaged men and resumed the care that was to become a patterned routine over the next several weeks. Not only for Sarah and Joan but the other nurses and aides as well, observing which initiatives and responses succeeded or failed, sometimes miserably, while soon learning that previous experience was not determinative for any subsequent interaction. And yet, patterns could be discerned and the discernment was greatly aided by the women sharing their experiences with the others, reflecting on the significance and efficacy of their endeavors. They discussed what relief they were able to provide the suffering men but also how they were withstanding the grueling twelve hour shifts of tedium which ah been re-established, their frustration, dissonance, discord and occasional mayhem.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #10
Installment 10 Chapter 5 Scenes 41- 44 In the morning Mother Clothilde joined her staff in the dining hall for breakfast. The nurses and aides coming off the twelve hour shift were pale, haggard. They were in poor sprits; they jostled and glared icily at each other and at the women arriving for the next shift. Considering the foul temperament on display, the nun thought it best to ask how the shift had gone, especially in front of the others coming on. She didn’t want the one group of women to be upsetting the others, and yet there clearly were events or circumstances that may need to be addressed. She called the night shift charge nurse to her, and explained she wanted to discuss how the previous shift had gone, “Away from the others.”
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #10
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. They are intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. They are not intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #8
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. They are intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. They are not intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #7
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. They are intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. They are not intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #6
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. They are intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. They are not intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #5
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. They are intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. They are not intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #4
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. THEY ARE intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. THEY ARE NOT intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS
Please note. There are descriptions of religious beliefs and practices contained in HER HANDS. THEY ARE intended for use as setting, cultural context and character development. THEY ARE NOT intended to promote or criticize any religious belief or practice.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS #2
HER HANDS #2 Chapter 1, Scenes 4-6 The nun and the teenage girl wove their way through their responsibilities the remainder of the day. Sister Joanna had Sarah take the lead with washing the men, changing their bandages, administering medications. At times she made a simple suggestion such as how to best relieve swelling with warm wet cloths, and how to avoid contact with a suppurating wound. At first Sarah was too self-conscious, with the nun present, to lay her hands on the men’s injuries, but with the fourth soldier she let her hands pause at the cauterized stump end of a young man’s arm. The man had been watching Sarah as she dressed his wound and shut his eyes when she lingered. Sarah felt him relax, she felt herself relax into her efforts. When she completed the dressing, the soldier whispered, “Merci.”
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction
HER HANDS
She placed her hand on the wound, the suppurating flesh. She felt the warmth of the infection against her palm. Sarah LaMontaigne knew what she was to do; clean this man’s wound, apply the salve, change the bandage. She moved intentionally, with little wasted motion down the row of men today, as she had the previous day and many days before that. But with each of the men, she paused. Always. No one noticed, or if they did no one commented when she placed her hand upon a wound with no apparent purpose.
By Ed Burke4 years ago in Fiction

Ed Burke

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HER HANDS #12

HER HANDS #11

HER HANDS #10

HER HANDS #10

HER HANDS #8

HER HANDS #7

HER HANDS #6

HER HANDS #5

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HER HANDS

HER HANDS #2

HER HANDS

Stories (12)