Singing to Victim

Music by
Eric Roche

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SINGING TO A VICTIM
OF A RECENT, TRAGIC AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT
St. Charles Hospital, Bend, Oregon
May 14th 1992

I quietly entered her room of pain,
a guitar of love in my hands.
Her hands trembled.
"Music", she said, "Music,
my second love."
I was unaware and spoke in haste,
"And what is your first love,
if I may ask?"
She twisted upon her hospital bed,
shook her head a little and did not speak.
Her softening eyes filled with her terrible secret.
*
It was a love song I sang her,
written by a young woman
who had wrestled with life and death
until death got her body
and life took the rest of her.
It was a real love song,
and so, spirit-born,
it flowed into spirit.
The woman drank it
and broke into tears.
She held my hand when I was done
and her love and pain was so great
it took me by surprise!
I left her room, shaken!
and was informed by a passing,
compassionate nurse
that the woman's husband
had just died.