Home from the Hospital Mid-September, 1974 Congestive heart failure ventricular septal defect cardiac catheterization ten days on the edge then hospital diarrhea so often fatal Bird close to death At five pounds taken off all milk whiskey nipple, instead Finally at home tiny Bird is different a mother knows then I remember the cardiologist overheard muttering to the nurse during catheterization these babies often suffer strokes
Oh, what a scary time that must have been... and you drop the reader right into it, too, with those first five devastating lines that lead to the sixth "so often fatal." And that photo of you and Bird is just precious. And that last stanza so ominously drops us more deeply into the story of these two. Such a keeper, Amrita... your Bird and this precious poem.
Gosh that sounds terrifying. And the overwhelming love for the newborn. The words “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” kept resonating in my mind.