Do Not Let Go

Image courtesy wiol5 via pixabay

Once a cookie-stealing imp
with hesitant smile and sad eyes,
ears bigger than his head,

the 21-year-old young man
now leans against green tiles,

crumpled between toilet and tub,
body held up by his father’s pinching grasp, his
eyes rolled back, staring from just beneath unblinking lids,
pale skin tainted blue.

The metronomic clap of
his father’s hand, connecting
with desperate, unmeasured strength,
punctuates the relentless eternity
between
breath and heartbeat
phone call and siren

every ceaseless moment accompanied
by the twisted, breaking cry
of his son’s name,

until his little boy
responds.