I love my job as a switchboard operator at a veterinary teaching hospital. Sometimes, however, it can be heartwrenching.

The calls keep coming
From worried parents
Of non-human kids
Suffering from maladies
As benign as itching
As deadly as cancer.
It breaks my heart
The stories they tell,
Shatters it
When I have to turn them away
"Per hospital policy."
I am a parent myself;
I can only imagine
How I would feel
In their place.
But I am
Just the switchboard operator.
I am just
The messenger.