Empathy

We empathize with other’s pains,

violent hands clawing into heavy hearts, cries unheard by the heavens

Sobs of a cold body curled on the floor, heaving cold bile soaked in blood and alchohol

Shower water turning pink as it hits the tile, cuts that seem to never stop bleeding

Whispers compounding to screams echoing in the brain, profanities and cruel smirks tucked tightly against broken hearts, insults taken like revelations

vile potions and thin shaking fingers down the throat, teeth dissolving by unforgiving acids

We hug the victims, cover their ears and hide them from the slamming doors, because it reminds them of Vietnam, of their abusive exes

we avoid looking into their hollow broken eyes, sunken in morphine-tinged skin as we disinfect their wounds

I have seen a lot, felt a lot. The mind-to-mind communication does that. and yet, there was just something so particularly tragic about how empty your mind was, like the framework of a fire-ravanged home.

as you saw me looking, you smiled, and I felt your empathy for me tenfold

I cried and you hugged me tightly, but yet, your mind continued running on empty, occasionally so violently empty that the connection fuzzed and snapped and I wondered, for the first time since this job, just what was going on inside your head?