August 2000
Letter 26
Girl 10 Hurt in Bike-Car Collision

I did not have
          the patience
to teach my daughter
               how to ride a bike.

At nine still unable
             to ride w/o training
wheels, a source of irritation
for me.            

Perhaps the times, many,
I threw her up in the
air as a baby gave her
a fear of falling, tho

I always caught her
she remains, shall we say
apprehensive. Cranky has
a softer touch.                     

Now, perhaps, relief
for my little girl & unspeakable
sorrow for the ten yr old
little more advanced

in her bike lessons
on the West Hill neighborhood
of
                        Slaughter.

The hospital has not
released her name.
Anytime down a hill
on bike the veolcity.

OH, the velocity
it is sheer and numbing.
Even approaching 40
this is my reaction.

At ten it must be
like Indy and this
still un-named bicycle
apprentice could not

negotiate the turn down
steep West Hill, could not
steer out of the way
of the 16 yr old

driving up. The impact
broke the driver's side
window. Head injury. Chest
shoulder & arm injuries.

Pediatric intensive care
in extremely critical
condition. Minor facial cuts
for the driver from the spray

of broken glass from impact.
Father & older brother forever
will wonder why they
followed. Lifetime of guilt ahead.

Prayers for the girl
the driver, the family
and most of all
for the father.

For there is no pain
like a protector's failure.
There is no pain like
a father watching part of him

mangled. Yet another
statistic of the car
culture, the suburb's
version of the gun.

I called my little girl
safe on vacation in
Chicago w/ Grandma, planning
to wear a helmet

on that horseback riding trip
to Kentucky. Our first hug
upon her return
will be a long, long one.

peN#991
9:04A
8.26.00