(From Dravet Syndrome Blues, featured on The Good Men Project)
Italians will find humor in anything
And
Some of the funniest shit I have ever heard was in a Children’s hospital in Trieste
Accompanied
By a few of the gravest, sober sentences I could compose
Delivered by doctors with cigarette breath
When the sedatives wore off
Her eyes would roll back and her lips would turn blue
Nurses bolused more meds
“This is how she is now”
“She is like a baby, in truth, even the little one is better off” She motioned at the 6-week old
“at least her brain is intact”
I kept imagining she’d sit up, stretch, and say “Wow, guys, that was rough.”
But sterile phrases, simultaneously empty and omens, mugged and beat me of these wishes
We will focus on making her comfortable
Traumatic Brain Injury
Failure To Thrive