I know it’s your job, to monitor the heart rate as it rises, the blood pressure as it falls. I know the gray-haired woman in the bed is another set of numbers with a name you’ll forget. She’s my mother. She grows tomatoes on her porch and has a song to sing for every occasion. She loves side stroke and chocolate and Japanese art. She makes the best poached eggs, and she knows exactly how to scratch my head to lull me to sleep. I know it’s your job to find the clot. To bathe the wound. To ease the pain. Thank you. Thank you for your hands as they slip the needle into her arms, the arms that gather me when frightened or cold. Thank you for your feet as they run down the halls to examine her heart, her heart that holds so many. Thank you for your art as you puzzle the why of her body, her body that knows itself as a vessel for love and prayer. She is praying for you, even now, as I do, and though you are just doing your job, thank you.
Thank you for this beautiful poem.
I’m grateful for your feedback. It’s a tough time right now with my mom, scary.
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Friday, July 14, 2017 at 2:19 AM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “Letter to the Doctors and Nurses in the ICU”
Sending you love and strength and calm as you navigate this road.
sweet heather! Oh, isn’t it funny how the world works. I am so glad to hear from you. I was just thinking about you yesterday, thinking how much I would love to go walking a lazy ohio road with you. sending you hugs, and thank you for the love and strength. I will pass it on to my mom & dad. xo
r
Rosemerry, we don’t know each other, but I gather so many lessons from your work. Thank you for that. Also, thank you for this writing about the nurses and about your mom. She sounds like a soul that blesses the places she goes and the people she meets. I send you and her blessings of health, peace, strength, and clarity. May you walk this part of the path with as much ease as possible. Namaste dear teacher. Augusta
Mom is exactly such a soul, yes, thank you for reflecting that. And thank you for the blessings … and for the wishes for ease. It is a scary and challenging time, and it is very hard to be far away from her right now, too.
And thank you for the really thoughtful words about the poems, it means so much to me,
Rosemerry
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Saturday, July 15, 2017 at 11:58 AM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “Letter to the Doctors and Nurses in the ICU”