Dead is not gone

I have covered this topic in 42 different ways over the years, and I am still astounded by the actions of loving families, who refuse to let their loved ones go on to heaven. Often their religious beliefs are at the bottom of this (definitely not the top). This is an old poem (2008), slightly edited.

The Work of Jesus

I'm ever more astonished

At the work, Jesus is expected to do, 

Forecasting that he will heal 

When really, death is due.

Take this patient in the corner

As example number one,

Her heart, her lungs and kidneys

Were very nearly done,

When a cardiac arrest

Knocked her to the floor,

Giving her tired soul a chance

To slip right out the door.

She had CPR

For well beyond an hour, 

Where the medical team performed 

Everything within their power, 

But they finally reached consensus 

That there was nothing more to do,

When lo and behold, her heartbeat

Went from straight-line to forty-two.

Now she’s grazing in our unit

Life-supported to the nines,

Seven vasopressors

And thirteen central lines,

An ET tube, an NG sump

And the Foley-Temp-Deluxe,

And while it seems we're doing everything

She's a DNR, oh shucks.

We finally get to Jesus

His role in this whole caper,

The family expects a miracle

According to the paper,

Written by some disciple

Two centuries post-resurrection,

How Jesus will raise the dead again

Like some cosmic lottery selection.

There are just too many people

Who need that Lazarus link,

Jesus can't heal every one

So do not even think,

That your sweet old Aunt Jemima

Is on the Jesus list today,

She tried to depart a week ago

Till epinephrine, made her stay.

The truth regarding dear old auntie

Is that she'll never get restarted,

Her body is here, and her brain is dead

While her soul has already departed,

The resident of this ICU bed

Could be likened to an empty shell,

Auntie is firmly ensconced in heaven

While her body remains here in Hell.