Heroes. Unsung

Dedicated to all the medical professionals and support personnel fighting the virus

Get all your courage. Open eyes and turn emotions off
We walk inside to meet pandemic. In pain, moans and cough
Where people die. They gasp for air, in their final breath
Where doctors fight an uphill battle against approaching death

It’s hard to write about this, much to the point of pain
‘Cause everyone inside these wards is under dire strain
There is a ghost town outside. But hiding hectic things 
Admissions, ICUs, ERs and sealed entire wings

Amidst computer monitors the clashes go unseen
The air’s filled with quiet hiss of oxygen machines
Physicians, nurses, social folks in shifts that don’t end
Decisions made on phones, iPads on which the lives depend

This ain’t a drill, tis’ real war, and some are very young
Dole fates of others’ moms and dads. Emotions must be strung
Supplies are short. Reuse that mask, it’s what they’re being told
And move around garbed for space, and not for common cold

They witnessed sick old chaps’ last living day on earth
Who went without last goodbye to friends at safety’s berth
It then befalls one of the team that struggled for his life
To call and break the saddest news to children and the wife

One cannot eat and cannot drink, the bathroom’s not for you
Alerts are blared now and then, assist the waiting crew
They don’t back down, they get sick, unable to go home
Until vaccine, yet to be made, defeats the pest’s genome

There are no smiles. Only sweat, plus tears, pain and blood
To “bend the curve”, make someone live and stop unending flood
The surge don’t quit, and light’s unseen in tunnel's darkest depth
But they continue their fight. With truth’s unsettling breadth

These people are tough. Hell has no match for their attitude
Who knew that daily life can forge this kind of fortitude?
Mask scars and sadness in the eyes tell story of fatigue
They are among the common folks, in their own league

The virus wrought some major harm to their fine mind
They are the best mankind got, to them we should be kind
We owe a debt of gratitude, and world must rightly kneel
To medics, who through daily work make difference that’s real

April 14, 2020
New York, USA
© 2020 by Edward Kritsky