This poem is part of the Poems for doctors project. You can find out more about the project here.
Season 4 : poem 4
Dr Ourania Varsou, Lecturer in Anatomy at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow, reads The First Death by Andrea Wershof Schwartz.
The First Death
Andrea Wershof Schwartz
I was surprised
how quickly
his body turned cold
so soon after
the terrifying task
listening to the emptiness with my stethoscope to pronounce
the first death
how wide his eyes under my penlight
unblinking
how heavy his wrist, how still
how easily tears flowed when the routine of death
the autopsy request
the certificate for the morgue
was punctuated by
a sigh
for the hole left in his family
how much his kids look like him
Rights: by permission of the author
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