Night Before Christmas

Hospital setting

’Twas the night before Christmas inside hospital walls,
Where the lights glimmered soft in long echoing halls.
The floors shone like glass, the air hummed with care,
With coffee gone cold and quiet hope there.

Monitors tapped out a steady refrain,
A pulse through the night of comfort and strain.
Each beep was a promise, each pause was a prayer,
For lives held between hope, surrender, and care.

Down in the ER, the night stayed awake,
With gurneys rolled fast and hard choices at stake.
Bright lights cut sharp through the worry and fear,
As moments arrived far too heavy to bear.

Fear showed its face in each trembling hand,
In voices raised quick, in breaths hard to stand.
When out of the rush, calm, gentle, and sure,
Came a therapy dog, steady and pure.

His fur caught the light like a warm living flame,
A blue bandana stitched clear with his name.
He moved without hurry, without any plea,
And softened the chaos with simply just being.

A woman sank down as her breath slipped away,
He leaned into her gently and silently stayed.
Her hands found his fur, warm, steady, and real,
And she remembered again how safety can feel.

Upstairs in ICU, the silence grew deep,
Where machines learned breathing when bodies could not keep.
Green numbers blinked softly, blue lights stood guard,
As waiting grew heavy and praying grew hard.

Chairs pulled in close where loved ones would stay,
Holding hands through the long stretch of gray.
The therapy dog entered quiet and slow,
As if guided by faith more than anything known.

He lay at the feet of a man bowed in prayer,
One hand in warm fur, one lost in despair.
“I cannot do this,” he whispered so low,
And the dog stayed beside him, saying he could not go.

High above sorrow, where new voices cry,
The newborn ward glowed as life hurried by.
Soft blankets and warmth, first breaths drawn tight,
A miracle born in the hush of the night.

A nurse placed a child on a mother’s bare chest,
Heart meeting heart in a moment of rest.
At the doorway, the dog paused, tail gentle and slow,
As if blessing the life just learning to grow.

From ER fear to ICU tears,
From first tiny breaths to the weight of long years,
The therapy dog moved steady and sure,
A quiet reminder that love can endure.

No sleigh bells rang through the sterile air,
No carols echoed from stairwell to stair.
Yet Christmas arrived without glitter or show,
In presence, in prayer, in letting hearts go.

So Merry Christmas to those holding tight,
And those learning trust in the depth of the night.
To the healers, the waiting, the weary, the worn,
And the love that stays walking till morning is born.