Books, Blogs and Butterflies

TAKE MY TEARS

H. W. Bryce

To all the idiots who continue to swarm in defiance of good sense
and safety and to those “leaders” who ignore the ban and travel and who leave the country,

and the rest of us behind with the ever increasingly strong killer virus,

take a look at reality. THINK! You apparently believe in denial, just not in self denial.

Here is what you escaped, for a few pleasurable moments. Good for you.

Written Dec 10/20  – grn ntbk nov 18-20 –

Take my tears, they are kisses,

My treasures of love. These teardrops

Kiss you goodbye and flow into

That bright new day        and remember me.

She stepped in, after shift, to cover

For a fellow nurse forced to take an

Emergency break. The patient was a

Mother of two daughters, fighting,

Fighting, fighting to breathe, to last

Long enough to see her daughters

One last time.

She does not know the ward is closed

To all visitors, and closing this night

To nurses, who will henceforth wear

Name tags for the humanity of human

Touch in place of touching touch. They

Will now have to read their patients’

Charts, and check their conditions via

Binoculars, the disease is that

contagious.

But for now, our nurse stands bedside,

Physically holding the mother’s hand and

Looking into her desperate, panicked eyes.

And our nurse is fighting panic, too, for

All signs are terminal. Hours left to fight

For one more breath. Grasping nurse’s

Hand as a strand of life, starting to

Hallucinate, clinging to nurse’s words:

“Your daughters will be here soon, Mary.

Soon your daughters will come.

They are on their way, Mary.

Your daughters love you, my dear,

Your daughters love you

very much.”

And nurse’s tears flow down her cheeks,

Soak through her protective mask, and

Fall from her face shield to kiss the

The cheeks of the dying mother.

And the mother’s eyes close, and she

Heaves her last, heavy breath, knowing

That she was loved, that she was not

Alone, believing that her daughters

were there.

And then the daughters were.

Take these tears, dear caring nurse,

As a lasting tribute to your loving

Compassion and your beyond-duty

Saintly work. Take these tears and

Hold them. They are your heavenly

Reward; they are our everlasting

Thank You. They are halos in the light.

Your tribute to wear. For you

are NURSE!

Take these tears and wash away your grief,

Look at them, see them in the light,

See the light refract, see that brighter future

They hold inside of them. Here,

Take these tears. Let them wash away

Some of the hurt.

— —

Upon reading about ICU nurses in the Covid wards in Canada, expressing their tears and fears.
This is for their professional efforts, and their love.
References taken from various news stories.

Dedicated to the doctors, the nurses, the aides, the morticians,

The wonderful government health officers and the families

Of the Covid 19 victims.

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay