421: Children's Hospital, Emergency Room
"Children's Hospital, Emergency Room"
Gregory Djanikian
You do not want to be here
You wish it were you
The doctor is stitching up
It is a cut on the chin, fixable
This time but deep enough
To make you think of gashes
Puncture wounds flesh unfolding to the bond
Your child is lying on the table
Restrained, You must be still
The nurse who cradles her head is saying
And the doctor is embroidering
Delicately patiently like a kind aunt
But there is not enough solace in that
To make you stop thinking of other children
Whose hurt blooms like a dark interior bruise
In other rooms there is hysteria
The sound of glass shattering
And in the next bay there is a child
Who is sleeping too soundly
You do not want to hear such silence
The evidence which convicts, puts away
Wake up, you whisper, wake up
You want to think of water
A surface with no scars
You want the perpetuity of circles
A horizon clear and unbroken
And the sky a flat blue immensity
Without sides or depth
But there is nothing you can do
When you daughter calls out It hurts
And things regain their angularity
The vulnerable opaqueness, I'm here
You say, Be still, I'm here
It's getting easier to work (i.e. interpret) in the pediatric emergency department, but there are still sad and difficult cases. One of the best things about working there is seeing the positive relationships between parents and children and how incredibly loving some of the parents/guardians are. The whole experience of being in the peds. e.r. makes me really want to go to medical school. Hopefully that will happen. Anyway, I'm rambling. I apologize. What's the best thing that's happened in your life today?
Gregory Djanikian
You do not want to be here
You wish it were you
The doctor is stitching up
It is a cut on the chin, fixable
This time but deep enough
To make you think of gashes
Puncture wounds flesh unfolding to the bond
Your child is lying on the table
Restrained, You must be still
The nurse who cradles her head is saying
And the doctor is embroidering
Delicately patiently like a kind aunt
But there is not enough solace in that
To make you stop thinking of other children
Whose hurt blooms like a dark interior bruise
In other rooms there is hysteria
The sound of glass shattering
And in the next bay there is a child
Who is sleeping too soundly
You do not want to hear such silence
The evidence which convicts, puts away
Wake up, you whisper, wake up
You want to think of water
A surface with no scars
You want the perpetuity of circles
A horizon clear and unbroken
And the sky a flat blue immensity
Without sides or depth
But there is nothing you can do
When you daughter calls out It hurts
And things regain their angularity
The vulnerable opaqueness, I'm here
You say, Be still, I'm here
It's getting easier to work (i.e. interpret) in the pediatric emergency department, but there are still sad and difficult cases. One of the best things about working there is seeing the positive relationships between parents and children and how incredibly loving some of the parents/guardians are. The whole experience of being in the peds. e.r. makes me really want to go to medical school. Hopefully that will happen. Anyway, I'm rambling. I apologize. What's the best thing that's happened in your life today?