[Poetry] I Heard You

"Physicians are not 'highly educated' but 'highly trained.'" - Dr. John Hoberman

Poem dedicated to E - 
Our time together was brief but blessed. Thank you for all you have taught me.
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The soft whirring of the suction vacuum  

Fills the otherwise quiet room.

And the fluorescent light shines behind her bed and gives her

A glowing aura.

The end is particularly sobering

Especially as a soon-to-be practitioner of medicine

For I know all the signs and symptoms of death

Down to the molecular level it is instructed

And yet there is absolutely nothing to do

But wait.

I introduce myself

She raises her arm and waves her hand as if to say,

“Hello,”

Even though her random movements

Are just pathology of finality.

But do they have to be?

Is it such a travesty to pretend that she greeted me upon my entrance?

Call me a victim of denial, but I see life until one’s last breath

And it is so crazy to assume she welcomed me

Allowed me to sit at her bedside with her gesture?

Look, her curly hair has little pigtails!

Her fingernails are painted a red so vibrant!

I can tell how much she is loved

Her family and friends sent the nicest cards.

And I remind her of that love.

If only she could speak, what might she say?

Would she tell me about her life? Her career? Her family?

Or perhaps just that the spot on her right leg is really itchy

And the gloves the nurses put on her hands are certainly not helping.

This one sided communication reminds me

She can hear my words.

With one corporal sense.

It allows our connection

As a Jew reads Psalms to a Christian woman

With a worn Bible found at her bedside

She can hear our similar tradition-

And she strokes my hand.

A soul lives inside.

It is believed our ability to hear is last lost in death.

How beautiful to live one’s entire life with the ability to listen!

If only we always appreciated this gift with all senses intact.

I pray you forgave

The resident physician who spoke so callously

To you…at you…actually, it was above you 

She forgot your humanity in your final days

And I tried so desperately to defend you from her apathy.

My dear, silent, fading friend

I promise we are not all like her.