Halloween Countdown Day 25: I Am Here!

I Am Here!

Hussss-Puhh, Hussss-Puhh

-      goes my breathing apparatus

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep

-      goes my heart-rate monitor

In this hospital bed

There I lie

Not moving

Not speaking

Not thinking

Unconscious

Unconscious?

No!

I am here!

I can FEEL the

Hussss-Puhh-ing

I can HEAR the

Beep-Beep-ing

Doctors and nurses

Come and go

Reading my chart

Watching my heart

Friends and relatives

Come and go

Hoping and praying

But never staying

But I am still here

Hussss-Puhh, Hussss-Puhh

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep

Now I hear them all talking

Sometimes in soft whispers

Sometimes angry hissing

Mostly just in murmurs

Occasionally

“Pull the plug” they say

Then there’s crying

Not me, just they

Hussss-Puhh, Hussss-Puhh

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep

The meaning is there

But sinks in so slowly

The fact of the matter

A sick feeling inside

Then, quite gradually

The terror is realized

And I want to cry out

“I am here!  I am here!”

But my mouth don’t work

And the words won’t come

Can’t you hear me breathing?

Or hear my heart beating?

Hussss-Puhh

H-

Beep-

Beep-

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee