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
The debate over Pete Buttigieg’s paternity leave is missing one thing: the birth mother
Simcha Fisher
2
Pope Francis did not create the divisions around the Latin Mass. He inherited them.
Rita Ferrone
3
Pope Francis’ 9 commandments for a just economy
Gerard O’Connell
4
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hopes to soon join his best friend in ‘the afterlife’
The Associated Press
5
We contacted every diocese in the U.S. about their synod plans. Here’s what we found.
Colleen Dulle, Doug Girardot

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

Director/CEO
Jobs
20 oz Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake & 1 lb Chocolate Bourbon Fudge with pecan pieces
Gifts
“Gaia’s Revenge” by Patrick Fleming
Books
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Volunteer / Vocation
Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology
Seminaries
See all Classifieds

The latest from america

President Joe Biden delivers remarks to promote his "Build Back Better" agenda at the Capitol Child Development Center in Hartford, Conn., on Oct. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Catholic groups—including the bishops—should pressure Republicans to support Biden’s spending bill.
President Biden is lobbying for a spending bill containing many ideas that the U.S. bishops have long supported. Catholic leaders and voters should recognize this opportunity for bipartisanship.
J. Kevin ApplebyOctober 20, 2021
Lord, deliver us from lying to ourselves
God is more than we can comprehend, and sin limits what we can understand.
Terrance KleinOctober 20, 2021
Pope Francis calls for greater female leadership ahead of G-20 summit
Pope Francis called for greater female leadership in world affairs, telling the Women’s Forum G-20 that “our world needs the collaboration of women, their leadership and their abilities, as well as their intuition and their dedication.”
Claire Giangravé - Religion News ServiceOctober 20, 2021
People pray during a Catholic service outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong as they protest the extradition bill with China June 11, 2019. (CNS photo/Thomas Peter, Reuters)
‘My gut tells me you can’t negotiate with these people’: Cardinal Dolan has concerns about Vatican-China dialogue
Dialogue is always preferable to confrontation, Cardinal Dolan said. ”[But] my gut also tells me that you can’t negotiate with these people. It could be extraordinarily counterproductive.”
Kevin ClarkeOctober 20, 2021