Night Shift Poem by Margaret O Driscoll

Working on the night shift
Changeover report at eight
Get each patient tea and biscuits
Sometimes running late
In an hour all are tucked in bed
In each ward lights are low
Time to start the night report
In the staff room down below
A bedside buzzer rings loudly
I go and investigate
It's only ten o'clock
Ten more hours to wait
Nights seem never ending
Piles of laundry to do
In the middle of the night
An emergency to answer too
Curtains are opened at six
Time for the wake up call
Usual morning routine
Tending to one and all
Changeover morning report
Home by eight twenty five
See the children off to school
Only feeling half alive