D.O.A.

The first time you witness death,
you may not know it
If you’re quite young and the adults
don’t clue you in
That’s what happened to me
when I was six and
Mr. McQueen, our beloved
neighbor died
There was a fire at his little mill
and he was quite old-
in his seventies- I was told
He put all his energy into
putting the fire out and
in the end, it put him out
I did not know it, at the time
as my young eyes watched my mother,
a nurse, take off her big garden hat
and fan him- I thought she was
just cooling him off
Mother called to another neighbor,
Pearl, to please take me away
I watched as two men helped
Mr. McQueen onto the backseat
of our grey Nash, so mother
could take him to the hospital
As we sat on Pearl’s back porch
drinking strawberry milk,
Pearl told me about Heaven and
how Mr. McQueen had gone there
I said: No, he did not! Mommy
Took him to the hospital!
Then Pearl replied: Well, he didn’t
Go straight to Heaven, he stopped
Off at the hospital first.
I nodded acceptance
I simply wanted Pearl to get
her facts right
I may have only been six,
but I knew what I saw!