Poetry by Charlie Gould

CHOICE

They ask me for an answer,
Each with different needs;
Each with different cancer;
Each with unique disease.

Each looking for the answers
That I cannot provide,
But I try to make them better,
Even as I ache inside.

I cannot show emotion
To the patients, I was taught;
But how to hold it all inside,
Once the damage has been wrought?

I have the tools, the well-trained hands
The discipline requires;
I tend the sick, hear their demands,
And know each one's desires.

Yet, sometimes I feel powerless
To really make a change;
In how they live, love and caress,
The time they have in range.

If Doctoring were easier,
I'd like it I suppose;
And even though it's sometimes tough,
It's the BEST I could have chose'!

--Charlie Gould*

*"Works and plays well with others, and does not eat his young."