I Became a Doctor

As my eleventh year was ending,

I stood silent in my bedroom, watching,

shaken by the nightlong struggle

of my father in the vestibule of death.

While the doctor worked to save his life,

I looked on from one to five a.m.

This is what I saw:

purple lips and mottled skin,

rasping sounds of labored breathing,

fluid bubbling from his mouth,