NaPoWriMo Day 8 – EMT, I am! I am Not!

NaPoWriMo Day 8 Prompt for the day is…

Use repetition as your driving force today. Choose a simple phrase and return to it throughout your poem. Each time it appears, let it shift—contradict it, unravel it, or deepen its meaning in a new way.

Allow that repeated line to act as an anchor, while the lines around it challenge what it claims. Let tension build between the statement and the truth beneath it.

Optional prompt for the day: In “Poet, No Thanks,” Jean D’Amérique repeats the phrase “I wasn’t a poet,” while revealing all the things he was instead. Try this approach in your own work—repeat a phrase, then reshape it with each return.

Here is my approach at this prompt.

EMT, I am! I am Not!

I am an EMT

I learned the language of sirens
before I learned how to sleep through the night.
Red lights painting the inside of my skull,
flashing long after the engine dies.

I am not an EMT.
I am the echo of a heartbeat
that stopped in the back of the rig
while I counted compressions like prayers.

I am an EMT.
I carry gloves in every pocket,
the smell of antiseptic in my skin,
the weight of other people’s worst days
settled into my bones.

I am not an EMT.
I am the man who sees the accident
before he reaches it—
glass like fallen stars,
metal curled like torn paper,
time slowed into something cruel.

I am an EMT.
I arrive. I kneel. I act.
There is no room for shaking hands,
no space for the tremble in my chest.

I am not an EMT.
I am the breath that didn’t come back,
the second too late,
the silence after “clear”
when the room decides for me.

I am an EMT.
I have lifted strangers like they were sacred,
held wrists like they were fragile threads
tying someone to this world.

I am not an EMT.
I am the weight of their absence
when I drive home alone,
radio off,
hands still remembering
what they could not save.

I am an EMT.
I answer the call.
I go.
Again.
Again.
Again.

I am not an EMT.
I am every face that follows me into sleep,
every voice that never quite fades,
every moment I wonder
if faster would have been enough.

I am an EMT.

And I am the space between life and loss,
standing in the doorway,
holding it open
with trembling hands.

If you want to explore more voices answering today’s prompt. Step beyond this page and into the wider current of #NaPoWriMo—where each voice bends the world in its own way. You can find them here: https://napowrimo.net/

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