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Left Behind When the plague came, Everyone felt it. Everyone suffered, Even though Not everyone got sick. And even though I was never infected, I still felt sick.
I remember two distinct things About the day My world came crashing down: One My mother screaming As the officials took her away, And two My heart pounding as she cried out for me Not to touch her Not to catch the illness.
But I didn't listen.
I grabbed her arm And held on tight, Refusing to let go.
"Oliver, NO!"
"MOM! WAIT, PLEASE! LET GO OF HER!"
One of the officials pulled me away and Took a syringe from his back pocket. I heard screaming, but didn't realize that I Was the one doing the screaming Until much later.
"Oliver! Please!"
I can still hear her voice in my head. I can still recall her Coughing, Hacking, Her struggling to breathe As two officials loaded her into the ambulance.
"Please! Stop! Take care of him, not me! He should be taken care of first! He needs to be treated before I am if he's sick!"
Only... I wasn't.
The official checking me for the plague squinted The way an old woman squints at her prescription bottles To make sure she's taking the right pills, And I knew Right away That something wasn't right.
"You don't have it."
He finally said.
"I- what?"
"You don't have the plague. Congrats, kid."
Well, that's a great thing To tell a child Who's just watched his sick mother Get dragged away Against her will Into an ambulance Traveling to a quarantine Which no one ever returns from Right before his very eyes.
I stared at that man The man who had just told me Something that had to be impossible And watched him pack up his medical kit And go, leaving me Home Alone.
I wasn't sick.
I was supposed to be sick.
Why wasn't I sick?
I waited And waited And waited some more Over the course of the next few days, But I never got sick. I didn't even show symptoms.
It was the day I received that letter Telling me my mother was dead That I realized: I had to be immune.
My mother held on to the earth Fighting for her life For an unusually long time Considering she had the sickness.
But when I realized That she was going to die, And I wasn't, None of that mattered.
Because on The very same day you and I kissed for the first time On the little green bench beneath our tree The very same day I received the letter The very same day I realized I was immune Was also the very same day They took you away from me.
I wasn't sick, Yet here I was, While the rest of you all moved on To leave me behind.
