2007-03-10 "Everything is under control. Situation normal."

What do you see, Nurses? What do you see?
What are you thinking When you're looking at me?
A crabbit old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe?

Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill.
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, Nurse, you're not looking at ME.

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still
As I do at your bidding as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten, with a Mother and Father,
Brothers and sisters who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon, a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty, my heart gives a leap.
Remembering the vows we have promised to keep.

At twenty five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide them, and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty my young they grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons have grown and have gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty, once more baby's play round my knee,
Again we know children, my husband and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead.
I look to the future and shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love I have known.

I'm an old woman now, and nature is cruel,
Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart
There is now a stone, where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,
And now and again, my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm living and loving all over again.

I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So, open your eyes, people, open and see,
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer, See ME.

***

First time I heard this poem I was in seventh or eighth grade, which was before it was scattered all over the Internet (if only because there was no Internet to speak of when I was 14 years old). Later, when I worked in a nursing home for one year, I learned that it really isn't that simple. I still like it, though.