Hey Nurse! (The Teeth Remix)

Hey nurse.
Say it again.

HEY NURSE.
Like it’s my title, my name, my leash.
Like I signed my soul away for a badge and a 30‑minute lunch break.

HEY NURSE.
He’s bleeding in the shower.

HEY NURSE.
She says she’s clean but her hands are shaking like fault lines.

HEY NURSE.
There’s a new admit, says his detox is “special”.

HEY NURSE.
You look tired.

HEY NURSE.
You look mad.

HEY NURSE.
You look like you already know how this ends.

I am the duct tape that holds the system together.
I am the mouth they bite when they’re scared.
I am the IV they pull out just to watch me run.

They don’t see the rot inside the halo.
They don’t see my father’s jaundiced skin under the fluorescent lights.
They don’t see my hands shaking when I chart his ghost.
They don’t see me in the parking lot, scraping the grief off my tongue like plaque.

HEY NURSE.
She thought you said “hey nerds”.
Cute.
I’ve been called worse by people who should have known better.
I’ve apologized for things I didn’t even do just to keep the peace, just to keep my job, just to keep one more body breathing.

I am a crash cart with no wheels.
A prayer with no god.
A match struck in a hurricane.

HEY NURSE.
Train the new girl.
Show her the ropes.
Tell her what it’s like.

Okay.
Tell her this place will take her softness first.
Then her sleep.
Then her voice.
It will hollow her out like a syringe and leave the needle on the floor.
Tell her she will see miracles, and call them Monday.
Tell her she will watch people claw their way back from hell and call it “progress notes”.
Tell her she will watch the best ones slip through her fingers and call it “expected”.
Tell her:
the job is holy, but the altar is built out of bodies.

HEY NURSE.
They’re calling you again.
Of course they are.
They always are.

I’m not a halo.
I’m a burn scar.
I’m not an angel.
I’m a wolf with a stethoscope.

I’m not your “hey nurse!”
I’m the matchstick in my own name, the strike, the hiss, the fire you weren’t ready for.

My name is Missy.
Remember it.

Say it like teeth.
Say it like a warning.
Say it like a door slamming on your way out.