The Quiet

Something I wrote about my current job working as an EMT/ED Tech in the emergency department that reminds me of the stillness between the chaotic moments.

Gregory Scott Gentry II

I stand on the edge of the storm,
where chaos crashes against steel and glass,
and the air tastes like antiseptic and urgency.
My badge says technician,
but some nights it feels more like survivor,
or witness,
or the quiet recorder between life and what comes after.

The stretchers roll in,
red streaking white sheets,
pain painted across faces I’ll never know.
I am the hands that clean the wounds,
that strip away the blood-soaked cloth,
that hold the weight of a pulse
as doctors chase the rhythm.

There’s no poetry in this work,
only the steady rhythm of duty:
sanitize, compress, lift, repeat.
The beeping monitors count lives in beats per minute,
while I count my steps to keep from falling
into the void between hope and failure.

Some nights, the fluorescent light feels endless,
stretching across hours that blur together.
There are no windows here,
only the constant hum of machines,
the sharp snap of gloves,
and the quiet, desperate prayers
pressed against pale lips.

I’ve learned to read the silences—
the stillness after a code is called,
the weight in a mother’s eyes
when we hand her a tissue instead of a miracle.
I’ve learned to carry that weight,
to tuck it away in the corners of my chest
where no one else can see.

But in the quiet moments,
when the hallways empty
and the night shift hums like a tired machine,
I feel it—
the fragile threads we tie to hold this world together.
A laugh shared between coworkers,
a gentle word to the patient who’s scared,
the way my hands steady even when my heart doesn’t.

I am not the healer,
but I am the hands that steady the stretcher,
the wraith that runs for a crash cart,
the soul that holds the room steady
while everything else falls apart.

And when the doors slide open again,
spilling the storm back into my hands,
I’ll be here—
ready to meet it head-on,
a quiet part of this sacred chaos.