What Do You See Nurses? - By Anonymous

This poem was found in the belongings of an old women in a nursing home after she had died.
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What do you see nurses, What do you see?

Are you thinking when you are looking at ME-

A crabby 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 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.

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I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still;
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will,

I'm a small child of ten with a father and mother,
Brothers and sister, 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,
Bound 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 love 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.

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I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel-
This is her jest to make old age look like a fool.

The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart;

But inside this old carcass a young girl a still dwells,
And now and again my battered 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 crabby old woman, look closer, see ME!

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This poem was found among the possessions of an elderly lady who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital. No information is available concerning her -- who she was or when she died.