Hard Fights And Very Small Triumphs. A life … A death.


The small private ward was now peaceful, but stark
No one was lying asleep in the dark
A young man had fought there all night for his life
She’d waited outside, his pregnant young wife.

The fight had been lost and there was no disguise
That could easily cover the hurt in the eyes
Of the doctors and nurses who’d seen the man’s pain
As they’d struggled to save him, as they’d struggled in vain.

Above and along in a different room
A baby emerged from a young mother’s womb
It was pretty and perfect as babies should be
The cord had been cut and the baby was free.

The husband and wife knew that they had been blessed
When their daughter was placed by the new mothers breast
She drank and she fed as her journey began
And they thought about names as they started to plan.

Very soon after the young man had died
His wife lost her baby and everyone cried
At the terrible waste they had witnessed that night
All wishing that they could make everything right.

But life in a hospital has to go on
There’s always more caring that needs to be done
Others will wait where the pregnant wife sat
But with happier outcomes, they all pray for that.



©Joe Wilson – Hard fights and very small triumphs. A life … a death…1994