evangeline

for thirty-five days
we held her,

knowing she could not stay -

drinking the pearled nectar 
of her seeming perfection
deeply, reverently;

murmuring euphoric orisons
even as she lay dying 
in our embrace.

only a stem
where her brain should have been;

we heard the diagnosis
but somehow 

vain hope  drove our prayers,
fitting them
with waxen wings.

her life
was a bated breath;

her ascension
a whispered grace -

exhaling,
we wept more 
in awe 
than with grieving.

ephemeral seraph,
fallen to earth -

for thirty-five days
we held her,

knowing she could not stay.

 

Author statement:

'Evangeline,' like nearly all of my poems, was written from a real-life situation. My wife Mary Ruth and I were asked by two of our dearest friends to be temporary guardians for their beautiful baby girl who'd had a catastrophic birth and spent all 35 days of her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of our regional hospital while the baby's mother, also in Intensive care in a separate hospital, recovered from the birthing process with her steadfast husband by her side. To be responsible for this outwardly perfect child while knowing that she 'could not stay' was heartrending and life affirming.

Rich Follett is a High School English, Theatre, and Mythology teacher who has been writing poems and songs for more than 35 years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, The Montucky Review, Paraphilia, Leaf Garden Press and CounterExample Poetics, for which he is a featured artist. Two volumes of poetry, Responsorials (with Constance Stadler) and Silence, Inhabited, are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com). A third volume with NeoPoiesis, human &c., has just been released. He lives with his wife Mary Ruth Alred Follett in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, singer/songwriter, playwright and director.