Dan O'BrienJune 15, 2020

I fed you. You wore your helmet of ice. And mask of ice. Only a mouth
opening. Mittens, slippers. Of ice. Electric blanket to maintain
homeostasis. Tubes seeding your blood with the molecules that scour.
Piece by piece. And read to you, afraid of my voice, while around us
the rude populations were moaning, weeping, begging behind curtains.
I didn’t want to be here; yet I came back. I had no choice. And this time
you fed me.

Dan O'Brien

Dan O’Brien is a playwright and poet based in Los Angeles. His fourth poetry collection, Our Cancers, and a collection of his essays on playwriting, Of Time and the Theatre, will be published in 2021. This poem is from Survivor’s Notebook, a work in progress. His work can be found at www.danobrien.org.

Provide feedback on this article

We don’t have comments turned on everywhere anymore. We have recently relaunched the commenting experience at America and are aiming for a more focused commenting experience with better moderation by opening comments on a select number of articles each day.

But we still want your feedback. You can join the conversation about this article with us in social media on Twitter or Facebook, or in one of our Facebook discussion groups for various topics.

Or send us feedback on this article with one of the options below:

We welcome and read all letters to the editor but, due to the volume received, cannot guarantee a response.

In order to be considered for publication, letters should be brief (around 200 words or less) and include the author’s name and geographic location. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

We open comments only on select articles so that we can provide a focused and well-moderated discussion on interesting topics. If you think this article provides the opportunity for such a discussion, please let us know what you'd like to talk about, or what interesting question you think readers might want to respond to.

If we decide to open comments on this article, we will email you to let you know.

If you have a message for the author, we will do our best to pass it along. Note that if the article is from a wire service such as Catholic News Service, Religion News Service, or the Associated Press, we will not have direct contact information for the author. We cannot guarantee a response from any author.

We welcome any information that will help us improve the factual accuracy of this piece. Thank you.

Please consult our Contact Us page for other options to reach us.

City and state/province, or if outside Canada or the U.S., city and country. 
When you click submit, this article page will reload. You should see a message at the top of the reloaded page confirming that your feedback has been received.

Most popular

1
‘Pastorally dangerous’: U.S. bishops risk causing confusion about vaccines, ethicists say
Michael J. O’Loughlin
2
How not to talk about vaccines: Some bishops are choosing the culture war over the common good
Sam Sawyer, S.J.
3
Benedict XVI defends his decision to resign to ‘fanatic’ fans who doubt legitimacy of Pope Francis
Associated Press - AP
4
Golden Globe winner ‘Nomadland’ is a portrait of late-stage capitalism in America
John Anderson
5
Explainer: Who was Mother Katharine Drexel, the second American-born saint?
Dennis M. Linehan

Your source for jobs, books, retreats, and much more.

Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope – The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis
Books
Genesis Spiritual Life & Conference Center
Retreats
Marketing Specialist
Jobs
Ressourcement and the Reception of Newman in Twentieth- Century Theology
Seminars
Assistant Chaplain
Jobs
See all Classifieds

The latest from america

How not to talk about vaccines: Some bishops are choosing the culture war over the common good
Statements by some U.S. bishops on the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine for Covid-19 are proving to be a cautionary tale about confusing Catholics on what is morally permissible.
Sam Sawyer, S.J. March 03, 2021
We need to make space and time for God
As creatures of time and space, we acknowledge the God who fills both by setting aside, sanctifying some of each for God.
Terrance KleinMarch 03, 2021
How this pioneering Jesuit helped integrate Saint Louis University
Father Markoe's pledge to work for racial justice helped transform Catholic institutions across the midwest.
Matt HollandMarch 03, 2021
‘The Iraqi people are waiting for us’: Why Pope Francis is determined to take this historic trip
“They awaited St. John Paul II, who was not permitted to go. One cannot disappoint a people for the second time,” Pope Francis said ahead of his apostolic visit to Iraq, March 5 to March 8.
Gerard O’ConnellMarch 03, 2021