LOW VISION
So I was studying for low vision today (my last exam) and during the geriactic section, our guest lecturer the following attached to our notes. I thought I'd just share it with all of you:
This poem was found among the few simples belongings of an elderly lady, after she died in a geriactic ward of a hospital.
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
WHAT DO YOU SEE?
What do you see nurses, what do
You see?
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 -
"I do wish you'd try."
Who seems not to notice the
Things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking
Or a shoe.
Who unresisting or not, lets you
Do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long
day to fill.
Is that what you are 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;
At twenty-five now I have young
Of my own,
Who need me to build a secure,
Happy home;
A woman of thirty, my young now
Grow fast,
Bount to each other with ties that
Should last;
At forty, my young sons have
Grown and are gone,
But my man's 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 are all rearing
Young of their own,
And I think of the years and the
Love that I've known.
I'm an old woman now and nature
Is cruel -
This her jest to make old age look
Like a fool.
The body it crumbles, grace and
Vigour depart
There is now a stone where I once
Had a heart;
But inside this old carcass a young
Girl still dwells.
And now and again my bettered
Heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember
The Pain,
And I'm loving and living life
Over again.
I think of the years all too few -
Gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that
Nothing can last,
So open your eyes, nurses, open
And see
Not a crabbit old woman, look
Closer - see Me!
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