Terminal

The patient

lies

upon the bed

in darkness

empty and alone.

 

The nurse is

checking charts

and

will not see

her slowing breaths.

 

Then silence comes

as

heartbeat stops

its work.

Author's Note

I wrote this as an exercise from the book Talking Back to Poems. The poem it "talks back to" is "The Cold Room" by Yvor Winters.
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I am adding a note - I hope no one interpreted this poem as derogatory toward the nursing profession. My sister was a nurse in the intensive care nursery until her retirement a few years ago, and I know the dedication of most in that noble profession. I know that my sister suffered a terrible loss whenever they lost one of those precious babies. I could not have done it.
When she did retire, it was in large part due to the "clerical" part of her job!
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My thoughts when writing this poem were more about the aloneness of death.

Reviews

[OT]

I like that you've done this in free verse, some topics would be muddled by rhyme, I done something similar the "answer" kind of thing before, but you've done better than I did!! stands on its own without the reference (of which I don't know)!! nice!!