She takes off the smiley face sticker

from the old man's wrinkly hand

As his nurse, she put one on his arm everyday

Why he liked them; she didn't understand.

    For he was a sad, quiet old man

who she would never catch wearing a smile

He was grumpy and odd, asked for the sticker each day

and had been very sick for a while

    Slow breath, soft face, a man who forgot how to laugh

sits up in a hospital bed

11:30 at night; the man is not feeling right

Thoughts are racing inside of his head

    He calls for the nurse but she's at her car

looking for things she can't find

She locates her purse and completely forgets

about the man who is dying inside

    She is too focused on checking her phone

though she knows no one bothered to call

She has lived life unnoticed, unhappy, unthanked

Will someone catch her if she starts to fall?

     Each day she's afraid to get out of bed

She just wants to forget how to breathe

She spends her day saving lives, yet she goes unsaved

No one will care if she leaves.

    The man rings the bell quite a few times

but no one decides to appear

He then tries to yell but no sound will come out

so he says this while shedding a tear:

    "Took me 96 years to finally see;

96 years to open my heart.

My breath's running out, there's no point if I shout

I wish I could just hit 'Restart'. 

    So God, if you're listening, just let me say

that I'm sorry I never did live.

96 years were wasted away

because I never learned how to give.

    God, I called for the nurse but she isn't here

I worry about her sad mood.

I wanted to thank her for all that she's done;

kept me company and brought me my food

    But I cannot move and she cannot hear me

My life is beginning to end.

So God, if you're listening, just let her know

That she was my one only friend."

    Outside at the car the young nurse looked up

and as she looked at the bright stars she cried.

While the grumpy old man she served everyday

laid down on his pillow and died.

    The girl wiped her face as she walked in his room

what she saw made her eyes just more wet

His heart had no pace; all around her was gloom

But the best part hasn't come yet.

    This tattered young nurse who felt so alone

witnessed a miracle ever so grand

The sick weary patient who died all alone

had a sticker on his wrinkly hand.

    As she came closer she saw with no doubt

that the sticker he wore was a smile.

And right then she knew she had done something good

and that life was worth living awhile.