ER Blues

Verse 1 – Nurse’s First Encounter]

Pinpoint pupils, blue lips, skin gone gray,

I search their face for sparks the brain might betray.

No answer-just silence, time slipping away,

I shout for the doctor as hope starts to fray.

There’s a train riding rails of veins,

Steel wheels pounding, driving the pain.

My rooms fill with cargo of greed-

Synthetic sorrow, chemical need.

I see the tracks-bruised veins, silent cries,

Each overdose another whistle in the night.

I press a fading pulse, fight to bring it back,

But this runaway engine stays on its track.

It doesn’t stop for borders, it doesn’t care for names,

Rolling through every city-every town’s the same.

They say it’s coming from the outside,

From the north or from the south,

But the hands that shovel in the coal

Live right here, without a doubt.

The engine roars with policy, the smokestack lifts the lost,

We’re left in the caboose, counting every cost.

You point your finger at the border, say the problem’s coming in,

But the roots run deep in our own backyard, where the real story begins.

It started in our clinics, with a script and a trusted name,

Overprescribed and overlooked-our own system lit the flame

Oh, the train of death keeps rolling,

Through the valleys and the plains,

Our last lantern flickers dim,

Trying to break these fatal chains.

If you want to save the people,

Don’t take the hope away,

Let this lifeline ride the rails with us,

So more souls don’t drift away.

I watch hope flicker in the fluorescent light,

Some wake up shaking, lost in the fight.

Others drift away, too far to reclaim-

Another soul claimed by the chemical train.

You scream your blame, but your actions stoke the flame,

Chasing power and fortune in your endless quest for fame.

Your policy cuts the lifeline-families of the lost will blame your name,

Shoveling coal in the engine of this death-dealing train.

Fentanyl’s a whisper, but it shouts in the veins,

A pinch can steal a future, leave behind the pain.

We watch the bodies tumble, tossed from the back each night,

Souls rising in the smokestack, fading out of sight.

It’s a homegrown problem, with an American at the wheel,

This train rolls through our heartland-its profits all too real.

You point at every border, but the driver’s got our name,

Mr. President, face the mirror-America’s to blame.

Oh, the train of death keeps rolling,

But we can change the track,

With hope in our pockets,

We can bring our people back.

If you care for this country,

Show it in what you do,

Let’s fight for every heartbeat-

The next life saved could be you.

Let me explain the miracle you’re taking away:

Narcan is a lifeline-a miracle in a spray.

It can pull breath from silence, bring the dying back to stay,

I see this addiction train end lives every day-

This is my reality. I’m begging you, don’t look away.

At the back of the train, where the heartbreak brews,

We’re left with the silence-the ER blues.