Day 231

Tell the stories.  The man lying on the guerney 
asks the surgeon, Will you tell our stories?
Do not forget us.  Do not abandon us.  The surgeon
has just come from operating on a child
whose legs, he knows, he should have amputated
above the knee, but couldn’t bring himself
to do it.  He has done all he could.  He saved
the child’s knees.  Knees that were, before
the surgery, still dusty from playing.
The child was playing in the dust before his legs
were blown up.  Tell
the stories.  Tell them.  Do not
shy away from them.  Do not flinch.
Do not ask,  Do I make you uncomfortable
with these stories?  The man lying on the guerney
has lost wife, parents, children.  House,
work.  He looks 
at the surgeon, who nods to his question.
Thank you, the man says, smiling.