IT IS LIKE
Standing on
A carousel going
Backwards,
Moving sometimes
Fast, sometimes
Slow, but never
Stopping so I
Can step off.
When I move, I
Move faster,
Hoping momentum will
Keep me from falling,
Backward, sideways.
This instability,
This imbalance
Shrinks the world
To the next step,
Then the next:
I refuse to
Fall.
So, yes, I burned
The bridge some twenty
Paces back,
No regret,
Without hesitation.
Anger, mixed with
Despair allowed me
To wash my hands,
Clean of a score
Of years of memory.
The links--
Once golden,
And highly prized--
Are covered with dust,
Consumed by
Cobwebs
Of silence.
I knew what
I was doing,
With an evening’s
Anger still in my head,
When I left,
When I lit the match
And watched the flame
Greedily devour all
Secrets, unbreakable
Bonds
That would forever
Separate me
From a childhood friend.
We weren’t kids
Anymore. We were
Building diverging
Lives where
There would be no
Room,
No empty chair,
No place to sleep,
Or talk
Until dawn.
Strangers, once, we
Are strangers once again.
IN RE: SOWERS V. CLINTON CENTRAL SCHOOL CORPORATION
ISSUE:
Did Clinton Central School Corporation exercise proper care in handling the dehydration of respondent’s son, or did they neglect to take measures that would have kept the child alive?
HOLDING
The court ruled that the school district did exercise proper care that they took appropriate actions to try to head off what eventually happened. It ruled, also, that the motion for summary judgment was properly denied.
ANALYSIS
The facts we are given seem to concur with the outcome reached by the court. There had been some issues of heat-related health problems the day before the death of the plaintiff’s son. Given this, and the heat wave still being in effect, the coaching staff changed the practice regimen, making it less stressful, and allowing for more frequent water breaks so that the players could continue to hydrate themselves. Furthermore, they continued the policy of “no contact”, made water breaks more frequent, and kept a close eye on all the players in an attempt to head off any dehydration. They particularly, for this case, checked in with Travis repeatedly throughout the practice. Each time, Travis asserted that he was okay. Whenever there was a question, one of the staff intervened.
Plaintiff, and their son, voluntarily signed the waivers required for participation in the football training camp. Both Travis and his parents were aware of the risks of participating in the football training. (Travis had prepared for this by working on the farm and engaging in strenuous activity before the training camp began.)
Perhaps an argument might have been made that Travis, being a minor, lacked the capacity to fully understand symptoms that would lead to his death, but plaintiff didn’t raise this as a claim to support their claim of negligence and less than the standard of care for their son. Though the staff kept after Travis about hydration, it might have been the case that Travis was unfamiliar with just what dehydration would do to his body. Perhaps he was more interested in being with his peers, with his team, than paying attention to his basic physical needs.
CONCLUSION
It would appear that plaintiff missed a chance to raise some important claims that might have led to a different result. If, instead of relying on negligence, they raised the issue of the youth and lack of awareness of their son. —His inability to realize the potential harm—they might have prevailed. It’s hard to say.
I am waiting out
The rain that will
Fall forhours, for days,
Drowning outdoor ambitions,
Compromising small plans
In exchange for feeding
And watering the world.
For now, I’m safe
And dry, a book
In hand, turning pages,
Marking time’s passage
By ignoring it, losing
Myself in a story
Not my own,
Carried along
On a river of words
That needs no rain
To refill it. The journey
Will take me
Back to the sunlight
When the story is
Done, and the storm
Has weakened and passed.
Back to the game,
Back to our story
After this brief pause
From our sponsors,
The tweens have arrived,
A trio plus one child,
Paroled from the classroom,
Given back to the world
From which they came.
They’re free to play,
Make friends,
And mischief.
Life is noisy,
Life is disorganized
With them here,
Present and accounted for.
Loaded with more knowledge,
Equations, names and dates,
Explanations loosely held,
The girls brush it all aside
For the more important
Stories, facts and fictions,
That consume them
In their off hours.
Interruptions of silence
Intrude into the noise,
Calm dislodges quiet,
If only briefly
Ravenous for sugar,
Hungry for chocolate and chatter,
Thirsty for life, they down soda
After soda, preparations
For heir assault
On the world.
They have their own questions,
Their own demands for attention.
Let us pause
Ten seconds
For sanity
To announce itself.
And now we return
To our original
Programming
Already in progress.
COPYRIGHT (C) 2011 BY THE AUTHOR
MESMERIZED by
Fire growing
Smaller
But brighter
Until
Its glow--
still so bright--
Is the diamond I
Can wear on
My hand.
MESMERIZED BY
Water becoming
Ever deeper,
Ever more crystalline
As it rises, or I fall.
Either way
I’m afraid
Until
I recognize that
It as ice.
MESMERIZED by
Earth, firm
In its infirmity
Imposed upon,
Imprinted upon,
By bipedaltrespassers.
Thefirmament, divided,
Providing food and shelter,
Valleys, mountains
And miracles
MESMERIZED by
Air that flows
Over land or ocean
At varying speeds,
Flattenihng trees while
Steeling balloons,
Scouring beaches
While keeping planes aloft.
Fire and ice, earth and water make
Up the miracle I know.
