
- Vol 40, Issue 9
PTSD
"For months she has dreamed in red..."
POETRY OF THE TIMES
For months she has dreamed in red:
blood flows from his mouth,
soaks his gown a deep red-brown.
She Code Blues a prayer,
stands aside as the team arrives
in ones and twos, breathless,
mouth blood pulsing.
Starched and spotless,
compressed in the doorjamb,
she is untouched
by the blood on their gloves,
the blood in the lines,
the blood spattered on white Nikes,
floor slick with cells and plasma.
Eyes locked on the flat-lined monitor,
she hears the last blood gurgle,
the team quiet and calm in a lake of blood.
And after they raise him on the cart,
she fills out the forms,
watches a woman mop,
hears soles stick to the floor,
the splash of pink water on steel.
Dr Berlin has been writing a poem about his experience of being a doctor every month for the past 25 years in Psychiatric Times® in a column called “Poetry of the Times.” He is instructor in psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts. His latest book is Freud on My Couch.
Articles in this issue
about 2 years ago
Safety Planning: A Tool for Peers As Well?about 2 years ago
Violence Risk Assessment in the Emergency Departmentabout 2 years ago
Emergency Psychiatry in an Extraordinary Ageabout 2 years ago
Examining Malpractice Risk to Physiciansabout 2 years ago
Collaborating Saves Livesabout 2 years ago
Keeping Up With the TimesNewsletter
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