CALL THE DOCTOR
Labor and Delivery Nurse, 1966
Icy rain peppers the windows.
Dr. Sasser is on call tonight—
high and mighty,
handsy,
talking to us in his particular way,
as if we couldn’t run this place.
How about this—
the Puerto Rican lady in Room 6
is hours away from delivering,
but Sasser doesn’t need to know.
Let’s call him, tell him it’s time,
haul him out of bed on this wintry night.
So what if he has to cool his heels in his stuffy office?
That’ll teach him—
don’t toy with the night shift.
For Barbara Maniaci
Author’s Bio
Mary E. Cronin, the granddaughter of a nurse, lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where she is an elementary school Literacy Coach. Her poems have been published in The New York Times, Rise Up Review, and Passager. She can be reached at www.maryecronin.com.