Trio of Mortality
Phenotyping Tears
Today a man I hardly knew
Died peacefully while morphine dripped in
Lungs no longer wheezing wet sounding symphonies
An aura of quiet around him
His daughter is in the corner
Sniffling softly
Her tears are of understanding
The man in the next bed snored gently
Unaware, innocent
Outside,
In the hall
Life went on as usual
That moment,
That peaceful room
With the sniffling and the snoring
Was gone
Tears threaten to spill in
Tears of fate and
Embarrassed vulnerability
Walking home,
Darkness presents itself earlier and earlier
Cold blurs my eyes
Faces moving past are mere figures
Tears of winter
Wedding Ring
His swollen arm fell
To the side of the bed
We thumped on his chest
I stared at his wedding ring
Betwixt the white coats
Such a perverse object now
No love and flowers and vows here
Just,
Alarms
Blood
IV pushes
In this cardiac arrest
His flaccid penis flailing like a small animal
Rather than an organ of lust
Thirty
His ashy skin
And dangling tubes,
Was a picture of seriousness
His family was outside the curtain,
Trickling into the hall
They were serious too
Yet somehow,
We quietly made jokes
Secret smiles
Intermixed with horror
We had to
Or I doubt we could continue
four codes in an hour
Because really,
How else do you watch a 30 year old die?
by Daniela Jodorkovsky