The Good Ones
Janet Kuypers, 09/02/06 #3
I’m back in Florida now,
near my mother’s house
where everyone on these little streets
knows everyone’s name
and everyone likes my mom
because she’s such a sweet woman
and every time I walk down the streets here now
it seems that over half of the people I run into
have to stop to tell me they are sorry about my mom
and you get used to hearing that
I mean,
not that it doesn’t mean anything
or anything
but everyone is sorry she’s gone
but one woman hugged me
and said
“they always take the good ones”
and that’s when I started to react
that’s when I was just about ready to cry
because yes,
they do always take the good ones
and it made me that much more sad
and it made me that much more angry
to know the injustice of it all
and to know there was nothing I could do
she didn’t smoke
she took care of her husband
and her five children
she was so sweet
and tried to make everyone
as content as they could possibly be
she followed her husband’s lead
in doing what he wanted
and kept track of finances
so that she could afford a good education
for her children
her husband
seemed violent in his children’s eyes
he drank too much
and she stood by his side
and kept things together
and she fought with breast cancer
then had cervical cancer
and she fought those cancer attacks
and won
you’d think she had gone through enough
for crimes she didn’t commit
but, you know, cancer doesn’t fight fair
so later cancer struck back by not attacking an organ
but all of her blood instead
I know she’s a strong woman
but how could any one woman
fight every cell coursing through her body
so yeah, it’s unfair
it’s completely wrong
I want to kill someone for doing this to her
someone has to be held accountable
because it makes no sense
that she has to fight a battle
she can’t win
and she’s one of the good ones
and she really shouldn’t have been taken
I hate them for taking her
and I hate them for leaving us to grieve this way
I don’t care who you are
but I hate you
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