October 17, 2018Purple Hearts
“If I’m gonna die, you’re gonna die with me.”
Words waved by Lashanda Armstrong through her van
before she drives herself and her four little children
into the Hudson River on April 12, 2011.
La’Shaun, her ten-year-old son from her first boyfriend,
refused her invitation, most likely in a quiet and polite manner.
There couldn’t have been time for a loud and dramatic departure.
He planned his escape while she attempted to back the van
out of eight feet of water. As he climbed over her lap
and out of the window, she grabbed his leg and admitted,
“I made a mistake. I made a terrible mistake.”
She let him go. Her death proposal sank. Her dying
admission stuck. He made his way through 25 yards
of ugly, cold Hudson River water back to the road of their departure.
“Help me, help me. Somebody please help me,” he screamed
repeatedly, waving his hands from the side of the road.
The night air surrounding him was skeptical, as pairs of eyes
blinked at him from cars that rolled on without stopping.
A woman’s heart screeched to a halt, and so did her car.
He was rescued by a woman who had never cared for him.
A mother successfully kills her child every three days in America.
Purple hearts and medals of courage for those who survive
the attacks of strangers. Nothing for those who survive
the attacks of loved ones.
A few days later, a picture of La’Shaun, smiling,
appears in the newspaper. He looks like a normal
ten-year-old boy because that’s exactly what he was.
from #61 - Fall 2018