#nursing poems on Hello Poetry

xmxrgxncy Mar 2017

I cannot sleep, for I'm nursing a sheep,
A coughing, sputtering lamb;
I cannot rest, for I'm doing my best
My medicinal best that I can.

Mama was young, and she knew no demands
For how to care, it was told;
Mama was scared, and she left them to stand
And to freeze in the shuddering cold.

Baby girl died, it was frosty and bleak
Under that black food bowl she lay;
Baby girl died, she was so unique
The size of a child's shoe, she bayed.

So here I sit nursing a poor coughing lamb,
Here I sit nursing a sick deathly man,
Here I sit hoping-just maybe- he'll live,
Futilely promising my life for his.

I'm now, as we speak, sitting in bed holding a lamb wrapped in towels who is Wetly hiccuping and coughing and bleating weakly. I hope he lives. His name is Bud. I'm promising myself that if he lives, well repair our well being together, onestep at a time.

#death #nursing #bud #lamb

Leigh Marie Sep 2016

to hold the hand of a dying man

You tell us to get the morgue ready for you,
we shake our head
oh, don't say that
we mean, its gonna be alright
but how do we know
that you really mean you'd rather die
than feel the pain that
extraordinary measures can cast
on a living soul

the doctors rush in
and rush out
everything- they say is emergent
you are equal
you, plus your disease,
the doctor is the solution
I mean the doctor has the solution
but is all the pain worth it?
you're at a battle with the odds
not given much of an option
you might as well
be chained to the bed

too tired to bathe
too tired to sleep
each breath of air
an underwater cyclone
trying to expand your lungs
against the waves of blood

you whisper,
I'm not gonna make it,
I'm not gonna make it
but sir,
you already have
bring your dancing shoes to heaven
you'll be able to breathe easy
again
*you've made it
you're almost there

this is a reflection on taking care of a dying patient, suffering more from his treatment than his disease.

#sad #dying #death #fighting #nurse #patient #nursing #solidarity #serving