There is a "look" in the patient's eyes, maybe it's the "deer in the headlights" appearance. And those of us who have worked side by side with the sick, maimed and dying, we acquire the "1000 yard stare" - the look of those who have seen too much.

Hospital Eyes

The sick, the maimed, the indigent
I hear their mournful cries,
They look to us in anguish
With their soulful, hospital eyes.

They come from every walk of life
The gunshot wound, the carving knife,
For every one that lives, one dies
We close their hospital eyes.

Some give up hope, some buy the farm
They take their magic and their charm,
They'll ride the bus to paradise
We'll see them off, with our hospital eyes.

Fibril_late; 12/93