Buried in frustration.

Failing

This was an evening
Best not to recall,
My patient yelling for ten hours
Regarding nothing at all,
In the hospital for 3 months
With seven organs failing,
Sleep deprived with ICU psychosis
Had reduced him to wailing,
He had legitimate issues
Like diabetic neuropathy and pain,
But the sum-total of this hospitalization
Had disordered his brain.

At any given moment
He was oriented on all accounts,
An astute observer of society
But he had lost some of his bounce,
Short-tempered, self-centered and lonely
He would yell, five minutes after I departed,
While other patient’s in our tiny domain
Thought a war had started,
Asking to have their doors shuttered
Frightened by the uproar,
Ultimately expressing relief
When they departed our floor.

This was an evening
I am pained to recall,
Marked by my supreme frustration
That I could do little at all.

Fibril_late;
8/21/08