Pleading Eyes
His yellow eyes, his yellow skin, kept watching me
As I enter in
His soul was begging to keep going
Although inside me, I was knowing
He wouldn’t last another week
He would be gone within a blink
Oh what a privilege it is to be the last one as he pleads
His son, his daughter, crying wife, and then his brother by his side
Oh what I wouldn’t give to give for him a few more days to live
His desperate eyes reach out to me
His screaming stare please help me, help me
He oscillates between the will of living ill or staying still
He wants to die, that much I know
He can’t go on, his sorrows grow
He wants control, he wants to go,
But wants to be the one to know
He wants to have the upper hand
He wants control when this will end
He wants to know that in the end
He will not suffer, will not bend
As he departs with head up high
He finally lets go and flies
Dr. Gelberg is a hospitalist and health sciences assistant professor at the University of California San Diego. In her free time, she enjoys painting with her three kids.