Asif’s Miracle

by ZAID ZAHEER

On the day Asif’s heart failed, a jazz parade was rocking down Fulton street——Typically policemen escort the parade——But this year the dozen or so officers of the small town found themselves preoccupied at the local harbor, intercepting an inbound shipment——The police search for pirates or terrorists but find only sailors andshipmen——Confused sailors met the policemen; the policemen were met with resistance, resistance was met with bullets——Bullets destroy, but today these gore seeds also catalyzed an miraculous change——Miraculous, how quickly pirates change into patients——To the hospital! An ambulance zigged, zagged, zoomed past the A train——Hurry, hurry, hurry——In hospitals we find the most astounding reassembly and the most defeating recognition——Tragedies and miracles are close enough to be adjacent, sometimes closer than that——In the room next to Asif’s, the sailor was dead on arrival——The miracle of life is a rube goldberg machine; it moves a marble out of the sailor’s body and onto his driver’s license in the form of two words: “Organ Donor.”