What do you see nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking when you are looking at me?
A crabbit old woman not very wise
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice “’ do wish you’d try’
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe
Who, unresisting or not, lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding the long day to fill
I
s 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 use at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother
Brothers and sisters who love one another,
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet:
A bride soon at twenty my heart gives a leap
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep:
A
t twenty five now I have young of my own
Who need me to build a secure and happy home.
A young woman of thirty my young now grow fast
Bound to each other with ties that should last:
At forty my young ones now grown will soon be gone
But my man stays beside me to see I don’t mourn
At fifty once more babies play round my knee,
Again we know children my loved one and me,
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead
I look at the future I shudder with dread
For my young ones are all busy 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 me age like a fool
The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There now is 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 lovin and living my life over again
I think of the years all too few – gone too fast,
A
nd accept the stark fact that nothing can last
So open your eyes nurse, open and see
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer-
See Me.
Phyilis McCormack
