Real talk on real rounds yesterday.

"The enemy way worse when he don't even show up on the radar. 

Them the ones that get you when you ain't looking."

~ My patient at Grady Hospital

On rounds yesterday:


Patient:  Hey Miss Manning--what you think about all this stuff in the news?

Me:  Sir? Are you talking about the Zimmerman verdict?

Patient:  Yeah. That. What you feel about it?

Me: What do I feel?

Patient:  Yeah. Feel.

Me:  I feel. . .  sad. I feel scared. For my own sons and for my husband. I feel bothered. I feel angry. I feel. . .hurt. I feel . . . . disappointed. I guess. . . I guess I feel a lot of things, sir.

Patient:  Yeah. Me, too, doc. Me, too.

Me:  Tell me. What do you feel?

Patient:  Me? I feel like somebody tha's been walking for a long time and just realized that he ain't got nowhere. Like how you feel when you driving forever and look up and see a sign that tell you that you right where you started. Like that.

Me: Hmmm.

Patient:  You know what, Miss Manning? Real talk-- it's a lot of people out there that still hate us. Hate us like it's the sixties. Maybe even more.

Me:  Sigh. But I just keep trying to tell myself that there's a lot of people who don't. Because I know that's true.

Patient:  Yeah, I feel you. But you know what, though?

Me:  What's that, sir?

Patient:  The ones that say all that bad stuff on line and on TV about us? They ain't the ones that's dangerous. It's the ones that don't feel nothin' that worry me. The ones that don't even see Trayvon or me or any of this as important, you know?

Me:  Wow.

Patient:  Real talk, Miss Manning? The enemy way worse when he don't even show up on the radar. Them the ones that get you when you ain't looking.

Me:  *silence*


I stuck that on a post it note for later. Because that? That was some real talk indeed.

Yeah.

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Happy Wednesday.