B.C. Children’s Hospital
i
Patio
plants pale as the kids
in blue gowns
I.V. poles
too empathetic or sad
to bloom loud and bright.
ii
Cut-out words
on the dividers
trellis-hung
pastel hopes:
DREAM, FAMILY, FRIENDS, HOME, SMILE
but most of all LIVE.
Violet Nesdoly 
When my son was a pre-schooler he had a best friend with a rare disease that eventually took her life and in elementary school another best friend who died of cancer. Those children’s spirits embodied all the words in the second section of your poem but especially the word “Live”. They had spent most of their lives in a hospital but always talked of what they would become and whom they liked best, and their smiles always lit up the room.
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A sensitive and excellent poem, as always. I’m sure it will help many people.
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Wow, Maureen, what a firsthand experience you’ve had with sick children.
Ellen, thank you for those encouraging words!
We had reason to visit our local kids’ hospital last week and it wasn’t the first time. Always it has been to visit members of our extended family. From last week a sight that sticks in my is an 18-month old, with a tube in his nose pushing one of those plastic push toys, his grandpa coming behind rolling the IV pole. You wonder about each one’s story. Those little wood cutout words wired to the patio dividers said volumes.
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