As I am sleeping...

I heard someone say that I am in a coma.

It doesn't feel real.

The noise here is unlike anything I have ever known.

There seems to be activity all around me,

but I cannot move, cannot open my eyes.

There are bits and pieces of memory. Fragments.

Fragments of thoughts, and sound, and sensation.



I just woke up again, but still can't move,

or let anyone know that I can hear.

My body won't move and my eyes still won't open.

For some reason I cannot stay awake.... if this is awake.

I am drifting as though on an ocean.

I drift within sight of shore but can't reach the shore,

or make myself heard. No one sees that I am here.

The tides carry me away again

and blackness envelopes me, and I feel nothing.



When you come to see me please talk to me.

Please tell me something familiar.

I need something familiar to hold on to.

I need your touch and contact with you,

even if I can't respond.

I need a connection with sounds, talk,

and voices that are familiar to me.



Stephanie, Brain Injury Survivor

copyright � 1997
This is a copy of the poem that is hanging on Thomas' wall.
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

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