Undefeated

The cold is most frigid inside hospitals. Sweaters and blankets be damned, there are viruses and bacteria to keep at bay. 

With all equal under their sun, humanity unites against the undefeated. Sickness and death tag team lobbies and waiting rooms. So we do our best to be kind. We hold elevators. Offer encouraging smiles. We find tolerance for the stranger lingering near the vending machine. We offer space for families to congregate and put their heads together. We try to understand the why. We do our best to honor our own Hippocratic oath to do no harm.

We cry for our mothers. Ache for our brothers. We collapse under the weight of grief that gives no care as to who is watching. Life is plucked away without salve.  There is no room for anything else but pain.