Newest Poem: Intensive Care

Paramedic red
battering at the night

someone’s bleeding
heart attacking
or stroking
out

Red lights blink blink blink blink
shiny truck gleaming

run to the bedside
asystole on the monitor
quick with the crash cart
start CPR
where’s respiratory

I need help in here

oh god don’t let her die

don’t let me fuck up
no time to think

where’s the back board
flatten the bed
open the airway
oh thank god there’s respiratory
at last
and the ER doc

OK
saved the life
time to mop up
get the chart
document document document

paramedic red
took me
back
tonight


© 2010 MLC

:cry:

It was good, but difficult for me to read.

Thank you for sharing it, Peggy.

I'm sorry it was difficult for you to read...

But I'm grateful you did.

Thank you...

:hug:

Praise indeed from the Mistress of Poetry.

I thank you...

But you do make me want to rethink this whole 'being a nurse' thing. ;)

Do think hard about it......it's not an easy career path...

I thank you!

:hi:

.
It evoked a powerful sense memory and took me back, too --
BIGTIME -- to my days as a medic.
.
Except the line "Don't let me fuck up" was a little jarring for me.
.
Downtimes, there was always room and time for self-doubts and
fears of failure and fears of revealing to the world that it had
placed too much trust in me and my judgment and my abilities...
but -- in the moment -- fucking up was not even a fleeting
thought or insecurity or possibility or option.
.
When I had to be, I was omniscient and omnipotent... simply
because I had to be.
.
Although maybe that was just me.
.
A "God Complex" is a bad attitude for doctors to have -- but
it may be a good quality in... even a necessity for emergency
personnel.
.

It takes a certain strength of mind to do this sort of work well...

Omniscience and omnipotence are very nearly essential.

And I thank you for your very kind words!

:thumbsup:

:hi: