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Libby Whittaker
Dunedin School of Medicine
Otago Medical School
University of Otago

Running into hot sun, stillness, cicadas
Defib cradled by my fast beating heart
Sighted! Yellow vests punctuate the trail
Closer now, I hear counting – four, five, six –
and the hushed half sob of a friend
He is dusky beneath a cloudless sky
No breath, no pulse, unflinching eyes
Non-shockable, an hour elapsed, yet stopping
still shocks me, somehow – the finality.
Spring is here; lives begin, others end.

Correspondence
Libby Whittaker: elizabeth.mary.whittaker@gmail.com