Twenty First Century Poetry

"Dead Upon Arrival"

Someone call the ambulance
Hope is dead
In need of resuscitation
No one's willing to apply
It's a job so few can do
Yet so many deny

From the hospital bed
We hear the call
Of loved ones long forgotten
Left to die, alone
Gasping for one last breath
To breathe in these tired lungs
Take blood, mix oxygen
The brain needs to receive
So that the heart can once again beat
And love
One last time
Even if it leads to breaking

Ambulance! Ambulance!
Come quick!
This boy's dead

Can you find a pulse?
Let's restart it!
His heart

I'd rather die knowing loss
Than die alone
Grasping for straws in a hospital bed
Where the CALL button never summons
The nurse, when I need her

Doctor! Doctor!
Give me some news
Can I return home?

Would I even want to
If the house I own is empty
And no longer a home
All possessions I owned
Have been bought and resold
Forever lost
Never to return
Like the call I made to a long-lost lover

She was one
Whom I shared more arguments than good times
So, perhaps it's best
To just let it die and be laid to rest
"Never look back," I heard once
"The past is the past"
Words of wisdom from a father
I never knew

I lie in my hospital bed
Bare-boned and broken
Grasping at straws
For some kind of redemption

Paramedics! Paramedics!
Please!
Do not resuscitate me!

It's not worth the effort
When this sinking ship of a man
Is going down
You cannot save me!