Cecie Suknaic Saulnier: A poem from my overnight on call shadow

A poem from my overnight on call shadow

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL

Written by Cecie Suknaic Saulnier

Somewhere, close by but a million miles away,

She sleeps within the snare of wires and tubes and cords.

She lives under the steady stare and sound

of machines, pushing air into her lungs.

She quivers – is it the cold in the air?

The isolation? The loneliness?

Somewhere, close by, but a million miles away,

she aches alone.

She does not see the novice chaplain with

Curious eyes and a throbbing heart,

Outside her room.

She does not know that she is being blessed,

Right this moment,

From a woman in an ill-fitting white coat

Who has no answers.

A woman who longs for the world free of masks

And isolation.

A woman who would climb up next to her

And hold her shaking body,

If only it were safe.

Somewhere, close by, but a million miles away,

She sleeps entangled.

She sleeps not knowing a chaplain sleeps

Somewhere,

Close by,

But a million miles

Away.

6.18.20