Life's Blood In Your Hands Poem by Mary Champion

You must dip your hands in blood and never shrink,
you must cut into the flesh and never quail,
you must view the gory guts and never blink,
remain convinced that you will never fail.
You will need a steady nerve and steady hand,
be blessed with eyesight sharp as birds of prey.
You will need to have each process fully planned
and keep a curb on panic, come what may.
When life and death are balanced on your skill,
with colleagues you can trust implicitly
their part in this procedure to fulfil,
these are the things you'll need to guarantee
that you are fit to wield a surgeon's knife
and strive to never lose a human life.