Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see
Grace has flat shoes
So she can be first on the scene
When someone is hurting
Quick and steady down corridors
On toes ready
To switch and swerve as the day changes
As heart rates and blood pressure vary
Grace runs fast
Like a river
Beside the river
Flows like a river
Brings life
Changes the colour of the scene
The city
The city would not survive without her
Grace rocks the high heels too
The ball gowns and suits
First and last to party
The night away
The night away
Because her feet dance the light in
When fear closes in
Grace keeps the doom, the gloom at bay
Grace is deeper than she seems
A well of unexpected kindnesses
Poured out to those that need
ALL that need
ALL THAT NEED
No fences erected here
Grace is a gift
Sometimes… her feet might
Ache or blister or bleed
Because she doesn’t stop moving
Even when she’s tired
Stubbornly
She keeps on giving
A diagnosis, a prognosis
A pat, a nod, a look in the eye
Connecting
Because Grace walks for miles in other people’s shoes
She has seen the best and the worst of the world
Within four walls, a curtain, a fluorescent beam
She keeps on keeps on despite her feelings
This glorious and broken world only sees the iceburg tip of her strength
And Grace is an army of feet
Grace is all of you here
Invisible heroes of the midnight hour
The ones for which this poem cheers
— a poem for my sister, Grace, who is a junior doctor and for all those working hard in the NHS caring for people