This may be hard on readers, especially on parents and those who have experienced child loss.
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Hearing my mommy humming her hymn
to my baby brother in his last minute of living.
She holds him tight,
knowing well that this is his last goodnight.
Daddy sits beside Mommy, crying,
“He can still get through this”, though he’s lying.
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I stand on my knees, hands clasping, and silently pray,
Gods, just let him live– let him stay.
If you decide to let him go,
I beg you, in the afterlife, give him a good home.
Don’t make my sick brother suffer any more pain.
What kind of evil person will do to put us through this bane?
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He is only a few days old.
I can still fantasize about us playing outside until the stars glow.
We will be cows hoping over the moon
while we sleep in separate beds in one room.
Yeah, I still dream it all, and my mother sings to us her song,
but that’s not going to be true all along.
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My baby brother’s eyes close, and his breathing slows.
We know he is about to go.
Mommy told me to get some rest.
a little girl seeing grief and death is hard to process,
yet my feet are glued to where I stand,
reaching to lift my baby brother’s soft hand.
-----
I’m still here, brother– return to us soon,
be reborn again when the irises bloom.
About the Creator
Ace Melee
-Mainly a horror and fantasy writer.
-I post stories, poetry, and scripts on Vocal. My preferred audience is older teens and adults, but I can adjust for younger teens.
Comments (6)
Oh dear gosh, this ripped something in me anew. I hate it when such innocently new life is snuffed out before it can truly begin living. I don't have many memories of my younger sibling being a baby since I was so young at the time, but I do remember what it was like growing up with both of my siblings before self-awareness hit. Goodness, we could have lost each other so many times, from allergy attacks to whooping cough to severe bodily burns. We all got lucky to have such caring parents, but that we had access to immediately great healthcare providers. I wish to be a parent some day and baby fever keeps rearing its head at me, but what grips me the most is the fear that I would never be able to protect my children from something so devastating that I had absolutely no control over. I almost lost a parent, but goodness, losing a child, blood begat of my blood, that would be a loss that I don't think I would be able to comprehend how to handle. It's moments like these that have also rocked and tested my faith. I had a family member lose a child. She cried her heart out and said, "I don't get why everybody keeps telling me that he's in a better place when the place that I need him to be at right now is right by my side." My mom told me that she was devastated. Yet, it made her more responsible, more attentive to the ongoings in her own life. It really hurt our family at the time as she believed that it was a preventable death. Poor little guy, I hope that he's doing alright. Beautifully tragic, Ace. Beautifully tragic, indeed.
😭 love to you
Gosh, this was just so devastating 🥺 Sending you lots of love and hugs ❤️
I was once asked to baptize a young couple's stillborn child. His heart had simply stopped beating days before he was due to be born. After delivering him (yes, she still had to go through that, knowing he was dead), they discovered he had a hole in his heart. The hole he left in theirs was ever so much bigger, continuing to ache with every beat 'til the end of their days.
Such hope in that last line, in the face of so much sadness. Well done
Very clever and thought-provoking.