Rounds
By Thomas F Smith
7:00 a.m.
Rounds start early in the Neonatal ICU,
Interns, residents, Attending Physician.
I am an Intern; I was off call last night.
We go from Isolette to Isolette.
Each tiny baby resting, warm, quiet.
Dr. Stahlman, our Attending, calls these her babies.
She knows everything about each of them.
Some mornings I think that we make rounds
Just to prove to her that we know everything, too,
So that we can take care of her babies until
It’s time to make rounds again.
We came to the second Isolette on the third row.
My patient, my baby.
28 weeks, 1100 grams.
12 hours ago he was sick but stable.
Dr. Stahlman already has been with the parents.
I couldn’t listen to the report being given beside the empty Isolette.
Dr. Stahlman’s eyes catch mine.
A thousand thoughts and emotions and tears
Exchange in a moment.
We moved on to the baby in the next Isolette.
Thomas Smith spent 18 years in academia and has over 65 articles and book chapters in the scientific literature. COVID changed his creative focus. His book in verse The Search for King: A Fable was published in 2022. He has free verse poems, haiku, and limericks published in a number of literary journals. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family.