I See Dead People: My Experience with Acute Care

That Which Cannot Be Unseen

I walked in the first day

Unprepared, afraid

Ignorant of all

The lives that wouldn’t be saved

They say bravery is simply

Stupidity in disguise

And trauma isn’t real

Until you’ve seen it with your own eyes

In bed seven sits a woman

Whose cancer has spread

From her breasts to her lungs

As she gasps for a breath

In bed nine

A woman lies

As she tells her daughter

Everything will be fine

In bed twelve

I dare not delve

If I find what awaits

My heart might break

And every time I leave

For the day or for a bite

I don’t know who I’ll come back to

Who made it through the night

Is what I’m doing helping

As I fray at the seams

Or am I just collecting horrors

To haunt my dreams

For every time I close my eyes

For a blink or for the night

I see that which cannot be unseen

I see people moving toward the light

Chloe Haber

Acute care is not for everyone. Shout out to the men and women who work in acute settings and are able to put their emotions aside and focus on all the lives saved.