Locked in
Nick was hurt one bright morn
Strokes hit his brain stem, connections were torn
They carried him off the rugby field
Horror began and an old world was sealed
It looked like a coma, but that was a disguise
He could only converse by blinking his eyes
Locked in, his body would not respond
With the outside world, a broken bond.
Anger flared, frustration grew,
Loneliness came, as you'd expect it would do.
To his worst enemy, Nick would spare this fate
where the freedom to move is an unattainable state
Maybe we all get locked in toward our end
Too weak to talk, no energy to spend
We hear the voices near our last bed
They don't know we hear when heedless words are said.
I think this scenario is probably true
I watched my dad dying, I was distraught, but no clue
Then he spoke with an effort, and I heard words he said
It showed he worried about us; his mind wasn't dead.
We can't see pain, we can't see a mind
It's the human situation, we're all in that bind
Nurses drown consciousness with morphine, to cure any pain
But good deeds can go wrong, should they refrain?
This has implications, families need to be told
The person might be there, as death grows a hold
Ignore hospice nurses, well-meaning or no
Locked in may be a fate, we one-day undergo.
Copyright © Gideon Oknin | Year Posted 2025
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