My trusted family doctor said <br /> “Sit down, I have bad news. <br /> Your PSA is very high <br /> there are tests we have to do.” <br /> <br /> <br /> I sat numbly as if in shock. <br /> I scarcely heard a word. <br /> This can’t be happening to me <br /> This whole thing is absurd. <br /> <br /> I have a wife, three kids I love <br /> Important work to do <br /> A house in a good suburb, <br /> With a mortgage payment due. <br /> <br /> * * * * <br /> I went into the hospital <br /> And they performed the test. <br /> I can’t say now which was worse- <br /> the pain or my distress. <br /> <br /> I started bleeding heavily <br /> The room swam from my view <br /> They told me later that I spent <br /> Three days in I.C.U. <br /> <br /> Three days I spent dead to this world <br /> Like Jesus in the tomb <br /> But no angel awakened me- <br /> just the beeping breathing tube. <br /> <br /> ** ** <br /> The biopsy was negative <br /> No cancer cells were found <br /> They gave me back this life again, <br /> but turned my world around. <br /> <br /> I walked alone along the beach <br /> Where sea contends with land <br /> I thought about my life restored <br /> my life’s work seemed like sand. <br /> <br /> <br /> I noticed as I walked along <br /> The verge of sand and sea <br /> The busy tide washed out my steps- <br /> all evidence of me. <br /> <br /> <br /> The god$ I’ve worshipped all my life <br /> Are mortal just like me. <br /> But the God stuff is eternal <br /> Like the salt and unplumbed sea.<br /><br />John F. McCullagh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-we-dead-awaken/
