Police - The First Time Poem by Paul Warren

In Millicent I spent the winter of 1976
I was still a cadet for my country posting fix
Most times I was an observer but went everywhere
It was cold most days but the rain didn't impair
The need to provide service to the people there
So I learnt a bit of what it was like to do duty and care

On one of the sunnier days we got a call about an accident
So we turned up to the scene where we had been sent
There was a forestry bus on the side of the road
Lying on the road was an lady with others in first aid mode
The ambulance came and worked on the lady too
But she didn't respond and died with her lips turning blue

She went to the Mount Gambier Hospital and was pronounced life extinct
The next day we went to the Morgue for the autopsy with time to think
We took her out of the morgue refrigerator and on to the autopsy table
It was the first time I had touched the dead forcing myself to be able
That day is clear and each time after when I was called to touch the dead
I had to force myself and it was something that I always did dread.

© Paul Warren Poetry