DESPAIR
AND HOPE WEAR DIFFERENT FACES
She sat across from me in the hospital lobby,
arms cradling a bloody young girl.
I was waiting for Marian’s visit to end.
Since learning she was pregnant, her face had taken on a rosy glow, a smile I
hadn’t seen in the five years of our marriage.
Meanwhile, across from me, a child cried in
pain. Dark battered face, swollen black eyes. The mother audibly praying, “Dios, Ayúdame. God, help me!”
I walked to the desk. “Can somebody take
care of her?”
“They’re waiting for an emergency doctor to
free himself a little time,” the desk nurse said.
Down the hall, Marian headed toward me like
one of those TV commercials where a woman floats through the air, smiling,
beaming, over her choice of some new product discovery.
When I turned, the mother and child were
gone.
Sheltered from danger,
The fledgling hides behind wings--
Mother keeps her safe.
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