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My friend mourns the recent sudden death of his 21-year old daughter ...

I dedicate the following verses to Noelle,of blessed memory, beloved daughter of my friend and author Micki Peluso whose book And The Whippoorwill Sang I have recently finished much to my own self-improvement. May she and her family have length of days, and the memory of Noelle be a blessing.

"Loss and Gain"

He took one life but gave back two.
How flows the divine arithmetic I cannot sum
when a daughter’s death does him benumb
Yet another of His mysteries none too few.

Reaped he the bitterness of harvest shame,
he comes each night to pray his grief.
At once did dreams shatter, in momentary brief
to his family soon two miracles came.

He taketh, He giveth in this, His world,
for them our love forever but live no more.
Their souls from bodies He doth tore,
cover them gently with love’s blanket unfurled.

He standeth before whom this father dost weep,
struggles to listen to sounds now mute.
Recorded in time ago on memory’s flute,
turn away from this ground into which our tears do
seep.


Alan D. Busch

Where authors and readers come together!



When A Father Loses His Daughter ...


The most unnatural thing is

the death of a child ... when

all things upright turn upside down.

Was it ever intended

that parents bury a child?


We live our lives in tenses:

the past, present ... future.

When a child dies, so does the last.

We live in a grief-stricken present,

and an unhealthy encumbrance with past

when a child dies.


Its most difficult challenge,

to comprehend the unfathomable,

never again to experience all that brought you joy:

a smile, a voice, that look, the pleasure ...

of life.


A father cries but cannot stop.

nothing can medicate his pain ...

though he tries with pills and alcohol.


Living with a child's loss

is like violently tearing a leg from its socket

and then trying to walk again ...

as if there were still two.


Crutches become necessary although

not upon which to become dependant,

but to restore a semblance of wholeness,

which can never be achieved.


What happens between the now of death

and eight years ago?

Two fathers sit side by side.

One father looks back,

the other looks around.


The death of a child is ...

when "because" no longer

answers "why" ...

when the most sage and powerful become

indistinguishable from the most simple and powerless

man.

A child's death is as blind as justice is supposed to be.

Where authors and readers come together!




Loss and Gain

(My friend mourns his 21-year old daughter's death ... )


He took one from him but gave back two,

How flows the divine arithmetic I cannot sum.

Suddenly his daughter’s loss leaves him all too numb,

yet another are His mysteries none too few.


Reaped he the bitterness of harvest shame,

he comes each night to pray his grief.

At once did dreams shatter in momentary brief,

so soon after to his son, two miracles came.


He taketh, He giveth in this, His world,

for them our love forever but live no more.

Their souls from bodies he doth tore,

cover them with love’s blanket unfurled.


He standeth before whom this father dost weep,

struggles to listen to sounds now mute.

Recorded in time ago on memory’s flute,

turn away from this ground into which our tears do seep.