Eyes Open
It was her second marriage,
my third year of medical school.
She was dying,
and fast.
Her husband looked kind—
worn down by hope and heartbreak
packed too tightly together.
She looked gentle, guilty.
I could see
she felt complicit in his anguish
more than she felt
the pain
of her failing body.
A story drawing to a close.
It hurt to watch.
Residents rushed by.
Doctors stopped
only as long
as it took.
He slept
on a thin mattress
on the floor of her hospital room,
not wasting a single second
of the days
that remained.
A flag,
staking
what love can be.
I think we all wondered
if he regretted it—
loving this doomed vessel,
bracing himself
to be shipwrecked.
I was so young.
I didn’t yet know
how to tell them—
I saw them.
Tamara Salih is a physician and poet based in the west coast of Canada with her partner and four children. She is interested in how power shapes identity, in speaking about and from marginalization and the interior world of medicine.
Amazing poem Tamara.
Your poem beautifully captures the tension between clinical detachment and human intimacy, showing how medicine teaches us to observe decline, but love teaches us how to remain.
This is amazing Tamara! So proud of you – for being featured in this publication, and more importantly, for having the courage to show up in the world in this way ❤️
A celebration of love, even when it’s difficult, even when it’s teetering on the edge of loss. So life-affirming, so heartbreaking
An achingly haunting poem. Its closing silence feels unbearably heavy, shaped by how subtly the pain of feeling unseen is invoked. Well done! Where can we find more from this author?
Thank you so much for your beautiful response. I am hoping to have more work published soon, keep your eyes out for:) We carry so many untold stories in healthcare.
This is what it means to paint a picture with words. I could see put myself inside this experience. I could feel it. Beautiful.
I was so moved by your poem. I could feel the writer, the patient, the family.
Thank you for your thought provoking images.
Beautiful and thought provoking! How do we see our patients?