A Quiet Choice - By Elizabeth Wang (12th grade)

Hush.

Silence falls over the dim-lit room; a choice hovers above, like a shadow.

Once with vigor, the body lies motionless.

It speaks no longer in words,

but in tremors and brittle sighs,

the glassy gleam still left in those once youthful eyes,

that shimmer.

Is it mercy?

We ask if this is God’s final act or

the heaviest toll He asks us to bear.

Can we give what we cannot take back?

What does it mean to choose an ending when the body

lingers like an autumn leaf,

clinging, trembling,

without the will to fall?

We stand torn between

justice and compassion,

we search for

dignity

in the quiet choice.