Special Care

Special Care

Sam do you remember
all your time in Special Care?
Would you recognise the voices
of the nurses working there?

Would you recognise a photo
from your first night in that place
- a tiny mass of wires
in a huge clear plastic case?

Do you have a distant memory
of that frantic afternoon
- when you put in an appearance

nearly fourteen weeks too soon?

And Sam do you remember

when I came to visit you? 

Your proud but frightened sister

I just didn’t have a clue.

“When will his eyes be open?”

and “What’s that beeping noise?”

“When will my baby brother

get to play with baby toys?”

Sam, you won’t remember

how I thought I was to blame

when Mum and Dad were crying

while deciding on your name.

They answered all my questions

but they had some of their own

When would they get to hold you?

Would they ever get you home?

When times were tough they thought 

of all the love they had to give

and all the details of a life

that you might never get to live.

So, Sam can you imagine

that now two years from your birth

you‘ve taught us just how fragile

are our precious lives on Earth?