Mildred (Millie) Irwin
In Rush Memorial, Chicago, Illinois (She died in the Fall of 2001...happily...at home in the U.P.) This poem was inspired by all the years in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that mom and dad spent with us children...living, loving and laughing. I often sat up, late at night, as we drove to our cabin helping to keep dad awake. I know these thoughts ran through my father's mind, while driving, as they did mine.
So, mom and dad, here's to you, for all the love you shared with us children and between yourselves.
With everlasting love...your son...David
THE ESCAPE
BY
DAVID K. IRWIN
15 October, 1998
Published in Vermillion Literary Project, 1999
Siblings shriek.
Dogs skulk for a sightless moon.
Dishes piled high
Since the restaurant suddenly closed.
The escape...
Dracula driving.
Driven by a lust to quench
An unquenchable thirst;
Or perhaps, the night-terror of dawn.
The escape...
Severed stars
Give way to the half-light and
Fall faintly
Into the water to reappear on tips of waves.
The escape...
Despair disappears.
Near weightlessness approaches.
Aloft in the clouds
Our Spirits mingle with sun-born Angels.
The escape...
Pondering Paradise
We are totally transfixed;
Utterly euphoric.
We rarely acknowledge boats of distraction.
The escape...
Twice-seen twilight
Hinges on the edge of day.
Treed fish-flies stir as
Darkness' deliverance draws near.
The escape...
Stars shimmer
After a day of swimming.
Clouds of fish-flies...
On the water... tantalizing, tasty, tidbits.
The escape...
Fish flying
From the darkened depths snatch the
Morsels in mid-air
And return, reluctantly, to breathe water.
The escape...
Fondly framed
Memories from our flight to freedom
Languidly linger on.
Our sights set on home, we reminisce about
The escape.
My father died in his mid-sixties from cancer in 1992. My mother, at 72, withered and died in the fall of 2001 from an aggressive tumor that attacked her liver and intestines.
I guess we shouldn't have chased those mosquito foggers around in Chicago as they sprayed deet in the elms (or was it the lead paint in our house?...or, maybe the asbestos tiles dad heated in the oven for easier cutting...or the pollution from Chicago...or...well, who knows?).
Thanks to all of you who prayed for Millie over the two year ordeal, I know she will be eternally grateful to each one of you.May the Lord hold you in His hands...now and forever.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
The name of the song playing is "Angel of the Morning"