Revelations I Wished I'D Had Sooner Poem by gina prettybrowneyes

A Sunday night. Through my half-cracked door
I can overhear my eleven-year old brother
Wheezing into his nebulizer in my parent’s
Room; my older brother is called from his girlfriend
To “make sure Elias is still breathing”
Elias taken care of, my mother calls 911
(sounding calmer than I ever could have)
While I sit with nothing to do, nothing to offer,
Just sitting on my parent’s bed (next to a fast-asleep baby)
and watching Elias breathe

Within minutes, three tough, burly men with duffel bags come
Speeding through the front door and make camp
In the green-tiled kitchen where
Elias sits, shrouded in blankets, on a purple toddler-sized chair, shivering
Into his oxygen mask as it pumps him full of steroids

As Monday morning approaches, he is carried
Down our red wooden steps on a stretcher while my bare feet tap-dance
On the cold tile floor and my teeth chatter
I am suddenly realizing how much
I love my younger brother, how much I would never want harm to come to him

And how much I hate having that revelation here and now