• Skip to main content
  • Skip to main content
Choose which site to search.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Logo University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Medicine and Meaning
  • UAMS Health
  • Jobs
  • Giving
  • About Us
    • Submission Guidelines
  • Issues
  • Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Poetry
  • Conversations
  • Images
  • 55-Word Stories
  • History of Medicine
  1. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  2. Medicine and Meaning
  3. Code Blue

Code Blue

Erin Bennett

In the beginning there is chaos.
Alarms and running and pressured orders. 
A conglomerate of people with a shared goal.
Tireless efforts to revive and restore the previous harmony
Of life. 
Hurried conversations of what might have been, of what could be. 
Old remedies and new technologies discussed and employed.
Persistent efforts to revive and restore the previous harmony
Of life. 

A pause.

Look into the face of Death.
Pain. Surrender. Peace. 
The words hang like ice crystals – fragile and mysterious. 
Death is an enigma.
Death can be a welcome visitor or a tremendous foe. 
Its unexpected nature almost always comes like a force.
One can prepare for Death, but not really. 
One can try to understand Death, but it still stings. 
Death can bring comfort and agony, separate or simultaneously. 
It can equally connect and disconnect people. 
Grief comes, or maybe it has been there for awhile.
Look into the face of Death. 
Pain. Surrender. Peace. 

Posted on October 5, 2022

Filed Under: 6 – Poetry

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences LogoUniversity of Arkansas for Medical SciencesUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Mailing Address: 4301 West Markham Street, Little Rock, AR 72205
Phone: (501) 686-7000
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Statement

© 2025 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences