BARELY MAKING SENSE OF ANY OF IT - based on high school paper Chase Promerich composed

Some people go through life, cursed, as children, from birth,
With loving, supportive financially comfortable families,
Safe secure households, neighborhoods, and communities,
Wonderful and like-minded family friends who watch out for these cursed children
And know what limits have been set on them
And promptly act when those boundaries are crossed,
Whether or not crossed intentionally or crossed accidentally,
And furthermore, they will report these trespasses to the judge, jury, and executioner
(In most families, these responsibilities are delegated to and hats worn by mother).
Why cursed at first? Because ultimately, LIFE intervenes,
Circumstances are turned topsy-turvy, and
What was once comfortable and familiar, is ripped away,
As if torn from bone like flesh being devoured by jackals, hyenas, and zombies.
And, for all appearances, lost and gone forever,
Despite the honorable, dedicated intentions of father, mother, aunts, uncles,
grand parents, cherished friends, fellow congregants, business associates, etc, etc, etc.
Loss of employment
Death (suicide being the most brutal form to those accursed and left living thereof,
(Something, sadly, was wrong all the long
(We just never saw it coming, until the beloved one is
(Now too far and too long gone to be healed, much less revived).
Loss of health
(Disease knows no socio-economic barriers as the revelers in Edgar All Poe's
(The Mask of Red Death would discover: No racial divides, no gender
(Differentiations. The cursed children of doctors too, and maybe even especially,
(Fall victim to the willful, wanton, in plain sight secret poisoning of our mother earth
(And their own childrens' weakened immunological systems.
(Cancer the indiscriminate killer; the ultimate egalitarian strike force of Death.
(The addicts' poisons of choice – alcohol, heroin, coke or a myriad of others,
(alone, but mostly in combination, especially with alcohol, the great mixer.
(Accidents too, frequently random, SOMETIMES (and tragically, utterly Foreseeable, (but – too late. The AIDS virus took so many unaware, back in the day when
(THE VIRUS was but a rumor printed about and hinted at solely in the gay press.
(Who could have foreseen that an infected blood transfusion
(Administered to save a life Would ultimately take that life, especially
(When the potential devastation of the disease was assuredly NOT a secret
(And such consequences utterly predictable to the health care communities
(That administered their healing efforts to gay men and to intravenous drug users;
(“What? Ask Prez Reagan to worry about those damn junkie homos? Fat chance.”)
The loss of the sacred, secure, safe home – father's castle - the loss of community standing,
The loss of employment, the outright theft of assets by trusted financial advisers,
The sudden and (apparently) inexplicable madness that descends and lingers. Alzheimer's and dementia too, such are these, as if the fates had patiently waited, all the while targeting these cursed children. At least SOME of these tragic events will ultimately befall each and everyone of us, And so, cursed are they as children who are doomed to live for years
Understanding only at the level of intellect, Loss as grave, as tragic, as unbearable,
as these heretofore already mentioned – (mentioning only a few, the numbers are legion) -
Noting only the absence of the presence ff former peers, beloved friends,
who, because of circumstances Beyond their control, are forced to disperse,
Forced to seek out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go
And look for the places only they would know.
And yet, Devin, through all these losses which you have endured
You remained faithful to the one to whom you made your wedding vows
And you never cursed your God, nor the fates, nor asked, even,
The most likely question of all: “Why me, Lord?”
And while some would develop, as a means of self defense, A shell around their heart, a cage around their soul, a minefield around their mind, You only look at people,
and see the good in them. You could have but did not become hard-shelled,
and been forgiven for it, BUT:
You are soft-shelled
You are open-shelled
And because of all this, I give you this gift.
With love to you and ALL YOU LOVE.
A Survivor's Guide to Life – du moi à toi
BLESSED ARE THEY WHO SUFFER YOUNG, EARLY, AND OFTEN, FOR IN THEIR
YEARS OF ABJECT MISERY, THEY SHALL KNOW THE JOY OF COMFORTING THOSE
MUCH LESS FORTUNATE THAN THEMSELVES WHOSE MULTITUDES ARE LEGION.
JUST AS ONE DAY THE CHILDREN OF IRELAND'S PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS WILL
SING, DANCE, LAUGH AND PLAY WITH ONE ANOTHER, AS ARE BEGINNING TO SO DO
THE GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF AMERICAN SLAVE OWNERS AND
THE GREAT-GREAT GRANDCHILDREN OF AMERICAN SLAVES, AS WILL THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS
OF THE PALESTINIANS WILL TOO WITH THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE ISRAELI JEWS.