The Authentic Expression Project

Being a First Responder, to us, is like being a lighthouse.

To be seen and not heard. Only a flash of light in the darkest of nights.

Brutally exposed to the elements

Alone in an overwhelming reality of helper. Not helped.

Most First Responders can’t. Or won’t tell anyone the details. 

The pieces. The sounds. The way colors and textures combine. 

They don’t talk about the smells. That feeling. What they sometimes see when they close their eyes. 

To be the unknowing keeper of society's trauma is something that can’t be done in solitude.​

-Poem by Brendan McCarthy & Edmund Dalo