I penned this poem during a nine-month stay in Johns Hopkins Bayview Care Center (from November 27 2003 until September 9 2004), while doctors tried to get my 104 plus raging fevers under control. IV pain medication kept me woozy as I drifted in and out of sleep. I felt the shavings cool my body with each soothing ice bath, which were often. I also remember floating far away to some ethereal place, utterly peaceful and so inviting. I longed to linger there. I was fifty-three.

Osteomyelitis, a bone and marrow infection travelled through my bloodstream causing life-threatening sepsis. It took almost two hundred oral and IV antibiotics plus seven months lying flat in bed to bring the fevers down.

On occasion, I awoke to see my LiveJournal.com web page open on my laptop, that sat on my over bed table, and discover that I had written reflections and poems during the early hours of the morning. I knew this because each entry had its own date and time stamp.

The words flowed effortlessly on the screen as if someone fed them to me.  The poem below sort of stunned me because it relayed an incident that had happened the previous evening. I hope it blesses you. After I read it, I entitled it Powerless Time:

As I lie here gazing thru my window, He paints the sky with splashes of crimson ‘n gold. Each stroke of color sings out of His mercy, comforting my weary soul.

Yet as I see the sun slowly disappearing, I realize another day has met its end and Time is racing by so swiftly, chasing me around each bend.

But wait! Time has no power o’er me for He has bought my liberty. So setting and rising sun can only remind me that I am resting in the Arms of Eternity.