Life Support

How do you take the decision to turn your child off?

Life Support


The night is calm and shimmers
in its moonlight coat.
I sit and watch the ocean as I
wrest with dark demons.

The vision engulfs me;
I see her sweet innocence
etched on a pillow of death,
awash with cruel tubes and all
the paraphernalia of dying.

I feel detached as I observe
phosphorous ghosts surfing
like green bobbing lanterns
to a glistening alien beach

Black angels bow my head,
bend my back and hang
huge moral weights about me.
A lone gull keens my torment

Am I to be her executioner?
Must I play God?
Juggling with destinies and
barely conceived dreams.

Where are you my child?
My sweet innocent child.
My mind is a black hole full
of question marks and
dark destroying God hatred.

The ocean whispers to me
and gently caresses my soul
I know the right path…
I knew all along

I stand wearily, turn and
look at the brilliant silhouette
of the hospice. It calls to me.
She calls to me.

I stumble and cry out but
the ocean has made me resolute.
I make my way to the switch
that will end her torment
and begin mine.


Archie Wilson