Once Again

Amy Lee (College of Medicine)

I open my weary eyes, day after day,
Far too early for my liking.
I spend every waking hour in the hospital
Getting all too familiar with its nooks and crannies
And the shadows that escape its walls at night.

I write this as I’m post call,
Physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted
From all the death and despair that I’ve seen in my short time on the wards.
It’s aged my face by ten years
But my soul a whole lifetime
And I know this is only just the beginning.

The world around me is bleak
The future looking dim
As the media speaks of nothing but this pandemic
And how we’re doing this all wrong.

At the rate we’re going,
It seems like this will never end,
As the snares of the virus show up in waves
Threatening to entangle us forever,
And that the life we once lived
Will become long-forgotten memories.

One year in and we’re still living in this mess
But we’re living through history, to be written in the books
As living, breathing works of art
That will be remembered for years to come.

One day, this will all be over
And it will be a distant dream
Not the nightmare we currently face.

And so we rise again from the ashes
Like a phoenix, as we rise from this pandemic.
Knowing the sun will shine anew,
That we’ll see the light once more,
The dawning of the new day will come
And we will live once again.

A reflection on life during the COVID pandemic and what the future has in store post-COVID