Sting

 
The body doesn't reject a finger
because once it didn't do as it should,
nor twice, nor thrice, nor countless times.
She does not
spill bones into streets
for not performing
in adequate measure. Often
when something breaks,
or fails to perform
we tenderly coerce it back to movement,
we drain out ideas of failure
and linger with it longer
nursing the strength
back into its form.
I took what you said
when you said it
where you said it
with great bitterness,
that I was a nurse,
that no one should
linger longer with that
but now,
now I don't distort the sentiment
with my own heartache,
with my own hope.
I am a nurse,
I am,
and I do it with love
for any and all
when their limbs feel like lead,
when their mind isn't leading
anywhere kind, anywhere safe,
anywhere possible -
I am that
and rise in that
hoping to draw
strength in great numbers
where each of us hold
each other in time.