In "Nurses," the author asks "Do you face the dark because you trust in light? / Or is it that you've come to terms with night?" This double thread of spirituality and stark reality weaves through poems which are narrative and plain spoken, yet wonderfully metaphoric--they turn our perception of the traditional healthcare world upside down.

In "Passages," a nurse cares for the terminally ill wife of a gynecologist. When the nurse enters the sickroom, the doctor asks why it took her so long, then adds "There's nobody with her but me," a line that reflects what illness does to both patients and caregivers: strips us of our defined roles and forces us to rely upon others.

In "Phone Call to Edward," a patient phones from the Emergency Room, where she's short of breath with "tubes all in me" and "oxen on." Her concerns are not what her practitioners might expect--insurance, family support, or even survival--but what's important to her: that the money is hidden, the electric paid, and that Edward stays home because the fare to the hospital is too expensive. Seasoned practitioners and students alike will learn from, and enjoy, these poems.