They Were Beautiful Poem by C. Edgar Nolan

In the City of Angels, twin girls were born
on the eve of the autumn equinox.

“They’ll live for a while, a few minutes perhaps.
Would you like to see them while they’re alive? ”

I shook my head and lowered my eyes,
then whispered the words, “I can’t.”

Glass doors, green walls,
and tattered magazines on an end table
adorned my cell in purgatory.
I sat alone in silence for two lifetimes.

“It’s over now. You can visit.”

I walked in a daze to a room at the end of a carpeted hall.
I held her hand at the side of her bed, but could find no words to say.

With tears in her eyes, she smiled at me.
“They were beautiful, ” she said.
“I held them until they died, and they were beautiful.”