Can We Talk About Death?

Ben Harstine, M4, Class of 2021

He’s old.

His daughters on the line.

His medical students listen quietly.

His attending is on trial.

He isn’t doing well.

The treatment hasn’t worked.

He’s going downhill.

We look and we search.

Try this. Try that.

I read on the internet it worked.

But no one on the web

told me that death lurked.

It would be a simple story

if only the lungs were sick.

Chemo. Rad. Cancer.

His flame burns down the wick.

The conversation ends.

No one calls him out.

An extra person was on the line.

Death brings the final doubt.

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