Infants Remembered In Silence (IRIS) - Poems

Joshua The Hero

by Christina VanShoyck

I wrote you a letter the night before we met,
To tell you the events of your very short life.
But I’ll tell it again for the whole world to see,
How much you’ve done in your very short time.

Your father, you see, wasn’t a very nice man,
He’d hit me when he didn’t get his way.
Yet, we tried to have you for five very long years,
And I prayed for you each and every day.

Well after so long and after so much,
I thought you’d never show your little face.
Then one day out of the blue, you finally showed up,
And we celebrated all over the place.

Your grandparents sang and Aunt Julie cried,
We all had such a wonderful time.
Until the day I feared most had finally come,
Dad blew his stack and again hit Mom.

You gave me the courage, my boy…
You saved my life.
With tears in my eyes and you in my body,
We left for the rest of our life.

So that my dear child is what you have done,
You’ve saved another human life.
So many people live decades of time,
And never accomplish what you have done.

Your purpose in life must have been through,
For God took you from my life before either of us knew.
I’d carried you for six and one-half months,
Love you, cared for you, planned for us.

Through the thirteen and half hours of labor I went,
To bring you into this world.
I held you and sang you a loving lullaby,
And let you go forever.

The night before I gave birth to you,
I knew that you were gone.
Two weeks, they said, maybe three,
You had left me with the dawn.

A bug, they said, a small virus,
Had taken you from me.
A healthy son is what I had,
Until that fatal disease.

I was fine, I came through well,
But for you, it took the toll.
At six and one half months, your little heart stopped,
and the angels took your soul.

In peace, at least, I know you died,
And in Heaven you now reside.
May the Lord care for you, little one,
‘Til I may be by your side.

Your grave is so small,
And the ground is so cold.
After all, it is January 23.
But I release you from life,
As you released me from death.
And the one prayer I have,
As I look at your box,
Is that someday I’ll have
Other children I can tell,
About you…
About their big brother Joshua,
The Hero.

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