stress tests

You are administering a stress test
to the man who is raising the children
of last weekend's stab wound.

You are working nights
when they bring her in from outside
Dublin's with no heartbeat.

(A for Airway,
B for Breathing,
C for Compression)

You are working nights when she dies
after an hour of CPR.

(You have seen people come back
after 45 minutes. "They aren't the same,
but they come back.")

You are changing the subject;
I am not the same. We will come back
to this.