i will die on this hill

By: Alex Belzer, MD

to care is to feel for

yet to care is to do

or not do

if appropriate

therefore

regardless of what i do

or not do

i will care

i will die on this hill

she feels my breath in the silence

we feel her death as if violence

when I can no longer give air

i will be there

i will die on this hill

our worst days align

helpless

evermore

stripped down

to skivvies so sapien

eyes, hands, thoughts

locked

beyond immaterial

i will die on this hill

205 to terror

terror to quease

quease to 26

26 west

land, world, society

before me

peers domineeringly

they call it marquam

i will die on this hill

Alex Belzer is a first-year resident in Internal Medicine at OHSU.