Ode To ICU Nurses

For Alex Pretti.
An ICU nurse.
ICU nurses are some of the bravest human beings that exist.
Days are spent aiding life to strangers.
Late nights that run into morning,
when family members have gone home.
Because to be an ICU nurse is to take an oath of an honorary loved one.
Changing IV’s,
Updating medication doses,
Manually turning an unconscious human body to avoid bed sores.
Recording ventilator diagnostics, while loved ones cry prayers and plead with their god.
Long hours and hours and hours slowly pass,
Living in the sterile world of life and death.
Grief.
Where hope is all there is to hold on to, until it’s gone.
Those who must love when they are tired, when they want to go home. 
When the family of whom they take care of has lost their minds, their sanity.
Those who live on the frontlines of life and death, every single day.
With ears that ring of heart monitor beeping,
And weeping,
And begging.
Anyone who spends their days working here,
Must have a heart of love.
Living angels, with a duty to protect life and care for human beings like their own family.
To care and care and care, seeing similar cases and knowing what the grim future holds,
Yet endlessly pouring out tender care, and doing everything possible to help. 
ICU nurses are the backbone of humanity.
Empathy is in the job description.
Heartbreak is a recurring theme.
ICU nurses are humanity’s best.
Heroes wear scrubs instead of capes.
Long Live Alex Pretti.