Hollow face and bruises, a wavering cry
“help me, please help me, please help me, please help me…”
echoes in my temporal lobe, splinters in my gray matter, a waterstained sepia from my mind’s eye
the desperate grip on my hand – the same in her eyes, pupils wide,
bruises flowering under the fragile, sagging skin of the senile woman, begging for her  medicine

more than a grandmother of 80, less than a child of 9

a dimunitive figure in a massive space, tiny in a cavernous trauma bay
Neglect behind, callous caring ahead
leaf on a river of fear and pain
Help me, please help me, please help me, please.