Footsteps

Hedy Wald, PhD

July 24, 2015

Urgency: code called in room 708
I raise my head, write a note
And try hard not to stare.
 
A crash cart clangs past accompanied by
The rapid footsteps of many as
The save a life cacophony begins.
 
A nurse frantically pleads
With one wife and mother
“C’mon Angela, speak to me!”
But hears only the monitor beep in reply.
 
In the tense calm within a turbulent sea
I lower my head and continue my task
While visitors in 704 chat about the weather
And the meal trays all neat and tidy arrive.
 
Planet Earth spins on its axis while
I inhale and exhale with slowed precision,
Assuring my own existence perhaps
Within this long, no longer ordinary day.
 
At sunset I exit the hospital
Without pausing to look behind.
 
The rapid footsteps of this wife and mother
Carry me home as daylight ebbs
To make dinner, to laugh,
To make love.