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.
