Why Me

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<em>I'll always remember my husband's older brother Jim telling me the story of a series of painful medical procedures Dennis had to endure as a kid... and tearing up over it some fifty years later... Dennis was diagnosed with polio when he was a toddler. As he grew, the doctor presented his father with the option of amputating the affected leg or stunting the growth of the good leg. So at age ten Dennis went to the hospital to do the unimaginable to his good leg… It always chokes me up when I think about it. ~</em>

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Few witnesses to your young private tears at the age of ten Why me Why me No amount of hugs or consolation could provide a reason or answer I know if I had been there My heart too would have shattered in a million pieces Your brother never forgot those Why me tears in the night Going through unthinkable ordeal foreign to any of us So young Why me indeed Years toughened you up till you traded those tears for strength And people would ask why you were always so lucky I think it started off with those Why me tears Then Lady Luck came along to compensate Thank goodness you were surrounded with love and pampering You pulled through and knew you could make the most of it You bit into this crazy world as you would into a juicy red apple Why me became why not me And you didn’t let anything stop you You had a million dreams You had goals and they were all out there for the taking And you went for it You went for it all And I loved you all the more for it Published in my 24-page photo/poetry book ~WHY ME: Edward Dennis Wicks~ 2023 AP: Honorable Mention 2021, Honorable Mention 2022 Submitted on August 21, 2017 for contest I'M A SURVIVOR sponsored by JULIE LEIGH RODEHEAVER

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Andrea Dietrich

Date: 4/11/2018 6:38:00 PM

I don't know if this is based on the life of someone you know or if it's fiction but Wow, it's amazing. I do not see one comment here. That just isn't right. It's very good and sorry if it did not place. I think this is a judge that I never place with.

Line Gauthier
Date: 4/11/2018 8:27:00 PM

This is based on my husband as a youth diagnosed with polio - one leg was affected and his father needed to decide to amputate the affected leg or stunt the growth of the good leg by breaking the bones somehow. Needless to say breaking it hurt. Obviously I never knew him then but his older brother told me with teary eyes over 50 years later. Thank you so much, Andrea, for discovering this well hidden little poem that means obviously a lot to me.