The Caffeine Drip: An ICU Migraine

Lyrics

[Intro]
In a hospital in Atlanta, a nurse hangs a bag.
Saline. Sodium benzoate. Caffeine.
Drip, drip, every ninety seconds.

[Verse 1]
This is not an afternoon pick-me-up.
This is a cluster headache at 3 AM,
a migraine that would not yield to sumatriptan,
a baby in the NICU whose lungs forget to breathe.
The bag says 250 milligrams. The drip is measured.
The alkaloid becomes medicine
when the dose is written in a chart.

[Verse 2]
At the loft on Dobbs Avenue
the drip would be called a strong cup.
At the hospital it is called an order.
Same molecule. Different ceremony.
The brain does not know which room it's in.
The receptor does its same thing.

[Chorus]
The caffeine drip. An ICU at 3 AM.
A molecule on a chart.
A lung remembering. A skull unclenching.
The alkaloid being the thing it was all along:
a drug, doing drug work.

[Bridge]
We have sold this compound at every price point —
espresso, pill, energy drink, vending machine.
But in the ICU it is sold by the milligram
and that is when we call it by its real name.

[Outro]
Caffeine. The drug we pretend isn't one.
Except when it is saving us.
Then we admit it.