For this week's Spin we're supposed to post about something we're good at.
Right away I thought of my writing and poetry. So please forgive me if I post a poem as my Spin. I wrote this about working nights as an RN on a pediatric unit, something I did for many years, something I also think I was pretty damned good at.
Nights on Pediatrics
One-year-olds with their knees
folded under their chests,
backsides high in metal cribs
shrouded in croup tents
hissing drops of mist.
Toddlers tossing with fever.
Adolescents clawing the sheet in search of
the next decent breath.
Kids with cancer swallow Tylenol
in their sleep while
fat drops of blood fall
from the bag through their veins.
The high-pitched screams of septic babies
blend with the deep-throated moans of sickle cell in
a young adult.
Nights on Peds.
We stroke their hair.
Tuck up covers.
Watch chests rise and fall with sleep,
brows wrinkled in dreams.
It’s all that we can do.
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Now you can go on over to Sprite's Keeper and check out what other bloggers have to say about the things they're good at.
Now, I should have listed poetry as one the things I have NO talent for.
But YOU do. Oh, my, yes you do.
Posted by: Jan | September 10, 2009 at 10:01 AM
That was very good. They are lucky to have had you as their nurse.
Posted by: Erin@TheLocalsLoveIt | September 10, 2009 at 11:30 AM
LOVE this...great work.
Posted by: JennyMac | September 10, 2009 at 12:08 PM
Maureen, reading that was tough, very tough. Shows how good you are. Magnificent!!
Posted by: Gloria Carrington-Ferrira | September 10, 2009 at 12:53 PM
I can picture it so clearly, especially the first stanza. Beautiful.
You're linked!
Posted by: Sprite's Keeper | September 10, 2009 at 01:04 PM
I have zero talent for poetry so I always admire others who do. Beautiful Maureen. I really love when you post things like this.
You are so very talented...and more importantly, you transport us to a very human, very real part of your world. Heartbreaking and beautiful.
Posted by: Audrey at Barking Mad | September 10, 2009 at 01:52 PM
We've seen this before, right? Because I remember loving it once before...
xxoo
Great work!
Posted by: Erin | September 10, 2009 at 07:47 PM
Hey, I felt like I was there!
Good job. . .
Posted by: lizspin | September 10, 2009 at 08:53 PM
That was beautiful. Nurses are amazing people to do what you do.
Posted by: Kimberly | September 10, 2009 at 11:44 PM
Wow - that is an amazing poem. Amazing!
Posted by: Twenty Four At Heart | September 11, 2009 at 01:16 AM
Such a beautiful, poignant poem. Makes me want to go kiss my sweet babies right now and just sit and watch them sleep. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Jane | September 13, 2009 at 09:59 PM