EMT

The sounds that hit the deepest-
That stay behind the longest:

It's the screams-
The yelling-
The crying. 

The pleas for you to help-
To do something.

It's the streaks of pure terror and despair
Because someone they love is badly hurt
Or dead-
And you can't do anything about it.

The screams-
The yelling-
The crying

That's what sticks with you.
That's what you hear in your dreams-
That's what you hear in the silence. 

Smell is a close second. 
I don't know how to describe it. 

There's something about who has died-
They have this smell.

But every case, 
Every call
Comes with something new. 

The more you do the job, 
The more experiences you encounter. 

You develop a panel of new smells-
Smells you never knew existed-
Smells you never wanted to experience. 

The smells get to you. 
They stick with you-
They haunt you. 

At first you smell it everywhere-
No matter how many showers you take.

Eventually you stop eating
Because all you can smell is
THE smell,
And nausea has become all that you know. 

The thing that sucks the most,
Is the longer you do the job, 
The less you can eat.

The smells are everywhere, 
There's no escape. 

Next thing you know, 
It's six months later, 
You don't remember what mental peace is, 
Your world has become a sewer, 
And you're down a hundred pounds.