This is a rewrite ('cause I've forgotten the original) of one I wrote a little while before I left acute psych wards. The original was better but what the Hell?
The Acute Nurse
Awestruck and a little shy
I stood, half-hidden
And watched the teacher passing by.
At his belt hung shiny keys
That jangled as he passed
For all to hear, for all to see.
And looking up I vowed that one day
I would be that man
At five years old I saw my way
To be all that I can.
Now decades later
I’m a boy no more
And in my hand I hold some other keys
I'm like the man
I saw before
But with a real unease
I’m not my brother’s keeper
And I never hoped to be
I’d rather be his helper
But that’s not how it must be.
So the keys still jingle in my hand
The patients get their meds
And remembering I wonder
What I might have done instead?
Cheers,
Stuart