Liz Rose Dolan: "The Healer"

Four-year-old David who has Downs

snuggles into three-year-old

Tommy’s chest like a Maine coon cat.

Then he pets Tommy’s head

flubs his lips on his pale cheek

and laughs at the noise it makes

with so much heart, he warms ours.

Even though he knows Tommy

cannot move nor speak, unlike us

he does not give up hope for him

maybe recalling when he himself

sipped air raggedly through a trach

and could not pedal his trike

but how last night

in falling twilight he did.

"The Healer" by Liz Rose Dolan. Presented here by poet submission. © Liz Rose Dolan.

Art credit: "Tricycle," oil painting by Darren Maurer.