Monday, June 14, 2010

The Wound-Dresser

...I onward go, I stop,
With hinged knees and steady hand to dress wounds,
I am firm with each one, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable,
One turns to me with his appealing eyes - poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you.

...Thus in silence in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all dark night - some are so young;
Some suffer so much - I recall the experience sweet and sad...


Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass


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