After month upon month in ICU
my sister reached perfection
and said,
"Enough."
The word came from a puffy, pale face,
beneath what had been a crown of thick, cascading hair,
but was now only scattered brown tufts.

"Be ye perfect,"
Jesus had said to her.
Hers was the only perfection
available to us:
maturity–ready, willing–
to release.

Text, image and audio © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

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