Is this the age at which calls and texts make me shudder

Seems to be the case – increasingly so

At least via text my friends can’t stutter

My heart fluttered today as one came through

Have you heard?, it said

I wait for the truth

Hoping another’s not dead

Turns out life support this time

Death stands outside my window

On a rainy day

A hooded silhouette, tall, dark, faceless

It looks at me but walks away

At least for right now

It heads to the hospital

Occasionally visiting the mother-baby ward

But more often the ICU

It penetrates families like a sword

The lights are dim

Everyone gathered round

Ventilators and buzzers are the only sounds

But then the rain pours outside

One is born as another dies

This piercing pain can’t really be the end

It can’t be the climax

Fathers and sons betrayed

Fragile women turned away

I see Death reaching toward the people in the pictures on my wall

It plucks at will

Inching ever closer

But I’m pretty sure that it’s just for now

This isn’t the end

There’s a book on my desk that tells a different story

Of hope – of everlasting life – for you and for me

Death extinguished

Christ is alive

This I believe

As I put my phone down

And breathe