Chant of thunder, orchestra of wind,
a breath of heart’s unrest.
Lightening flash in half moon’s glow
unearths laments repressed.
Raindropped streams upon her face
masking moistened eyes,
lead her gently by zephyr’s call
into awaiting skies.
•
You took your life.
I’m sorry I was only
fifteen feet away.
The doctors were only fifteen feet away.
You didn’t know this.
But I spent days and nights
next door to where you decided
to end your life. Where the doctors
gather, pondering over differentials…
treatments…dissecting our every move
to ensure that we are doing the
right thing for you.
The right thing…
If I had known you,
I would have fought for you.
I know you weren’t my patient;
I know we had never even met.
I am just the person who found
you. Who pronounced you.
You were already cold,
but still, I placed the
stethoscope against
your chest and
listened.
I didn’t hear anything.
Did you hear me as
I wept for you?
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry
you were suffering.
I’m sorry you felt
as if you had
no way out.
I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.
•
This is a reflection over an event that happened during residency.
An event I still think about at times.
A lingering guilt.
Anguish
as waters frosted by twilight
weigh upon gossamer wings.
Deceived by a thirst unquenched,
I descend upon a reflection,
sinking into myself.
Imprisoned
within bitter tides,
I reminisce of a life relinquished–
where pinions sway unfettered
above blossoms coaxed by spring,
flittering from bud to bloom,
each bead of nectar
a fragrant haven.
Peering above to
heavens turned black,
tapestries of stars taunt
as they unbraid before me.
Below bitter waters,
shadows enshrined
whisper silently,
beckoning.
By the lure of
exhaustion
I succumb
to the abyss’
waiting embrace,
the warmth within now
a quivering of a fading flame.
I enter into the void.
•
A cardiac arrest. A resuscitation made. A life recovered.
One patient tells me his experience.
This is his story.
•
Death.
Amid the chaos enclosing,
beseeched by an ambiance of ages to come,
I hear the seraph’s dulcet calls.
Immured by words
divine and bittersweet,
they sculpt the frigid air,
and I am comforted.
As flesh is pierced, poisons forced,
I am held in tender embrace–
its whispers an oasis to the fears
that boil within my breast.
A skyward calling, its promised hope
glistens the starlight above me.
Memories, regret, longings and dreams–
a cycle ripened to revolve anew
cascades within my being.
I then behold a fleeting sight–
a son, wife, a father, my life–
their love commanding,
gazes imploring.
Therefore
with a strength untold
I fight
until with the sun
I am ushered
out of the grasp
of the ebbing eve.
I open my eyes.
• • •
• • •
![Code Blue [a poem]](https://i0.wp.com/healthinspiration.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/arrest1.jpg?fit=1200%2C266&ssl=1&resize=40%2C40){kind=small}
