Icu 32 Poem by Bradley Flowers

Visiting my mother, room 32 in ICU
Life truly starts and sparks ignite
Grinding friction from the facts of life
Pushed and forced by flow and strife

That day, those steps-the tears
They became the longest thirty feet
I'd ever walked in such short time
To let in the things that change

I'd conformed in moments to reality
I'd Let in the condolence from doctors
Though the fact that she was still alive
Spoke to a bitter agony to hear her speak

She humbled with tremble words,
"I'm so proud of you, remember my love."
She barely managed them, but wasn't finished,
'I won't say goodbye, I'm always with you. I'm
Going to make it I know I will.'


Choked by the chords to speak,
my tears trickled down and i crumbled
With words that rolled out like a child sobbing
I could feel the vibration of words speaking
"I love you and I won't forget you mother"

The surreal and utterly freighting feeling
The knowledge contained inside
Not wanting, but waiting for her to fade away
Praying that it stops: let her suffer no more


Being asked to leave the room
That moment then felt cold to me inside
To feel the tears dry to the disbelief
So others might say goodbye

The tracing of steps i'd taken
I walked to the rain clouds
The tear soaked filled my view
a surrounding of family