A poem by Lucy Berry

“Doctors have performed the first organ transplants from a newborn in the UK.
In a procedure described as a milestone in neonatal care, a six-day-old baby girl’s
kidneys and liver cells were given to two separate recipients after her heart stopped beating.”
bbc.co.uk, 20 January 2015

 

So, God, what is this odd, sad thing about?
A long-awaited tiny baby dies,
her life time missed. And as she shuts her eyes,
in a heartbeat, You turn us inside out;

transplanting life to other families.
How does that work, God? taking that last breath
taking the emptiness and her lost time
and bringing benefit out of her death

to two young other lives? Almost a trick;
a joyful rabbit pulled from a bleak hat.
Ach, but there is no justice to the act.
I don’t like the neat nastiness of that.

How can one gross despair balance two joys?
What possible excuses can You give
for letting one belovèd person die
in order that others may live?

 

©Lucy Berry

Lucy Berry is a poet. She is the author of Trouble with Church?
Provocative poems for thoughtful Christians (Kevin Mayhew, 2008) www.lucyberry.com

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This article was published in the March 2015 edition of  Reform.

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