2023 Writing Award Submission

Jay Kaplan, MD, FACEP

you know

            we believe we are invincible

                        perhaps immortal

until we learn that we are not

the learning may come in hints bits and pieces

            or

as a big and sudden revelation

            or

                        anywhere in the chasm in between

oh the depths we then find ourselves in

            as we immediately remember

                        this life is not a dress rehearsal

no longer just an idea

            now a visceral recognition

we know this more and better than most

            as we care for those whose bodies have them

                        feeling out of control

                        grasping to right their ship

and keep their boat afloat

            in the oceans of illness

only now

it isn’t just them

in that water