Saturday, May 24, 2008

Ward For The Broken Hearted

you said you hate hospitals
the sights and smells
over bearing
a cynic you determined
all they did was use drugs to substitute caring
visiting a friend
you pass by cold steel beds
on casters in hallways
lined up out of the way
waiting
the newly arrived on display
you don't need to see to know
thin walls and hospital curtains
are hiding shame and grief
drawn to conceal the overwhelmed hurting
the sign above the front desk says
'WARD FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED'

PCAs carry buckets with soft wash cloths
to bathe the wounds depart
posters of precautionary procedures
surround patients hooked to IV drips of comfort
pay television plays silently
and the cords hang off remotes to adjust the bed heights
buzzers ring pleading
the nourishment of company
but they're on strict diets of time alone
some of the long term admittees rejoice
in someone to always answer the telephone
signs above beds say
'QUIET - RESTING, REJUVENATING AND RECOVERY
the elevator's packed with orderlies
escorting tragedies from the 'trauma ward for the burns of love'
a queue is forming -increasing- for the self admitted
others being dragged in kicking and screaming
then there's the emotionally dead
silent as zombies; voicing moans from their dreams
the staff have a name for those fallen
who never awake
inverted insomniacs
given a sleeping spell
by a sorcerer called Forsaken
doctors and nurses tend to operations
trying to instigate change
but some of the patients' hearts
are arrested or too old aged
love dies at the knife
either stabbed by passionate murder
or in the emergency room
by slicing arteries on the operating table

where I lay you pushed through the door
as determined as ever before
to be by my side and get me well
and warm my heart till the ice thaws
I didn't have to explain
how my other left and hurt me
you just knew
shyly I asked you to forgive me
I didn't have the right to underestimate you
you were silent and just nodded
no words needed to tell me of your love
as I closed my eyes I wondered
why I turned you away
you should have been enough
the outpatient's form has a section
titled 'do you feel safe to leave?'
I signed with some hope myself as okay
but knowing sorrow can drip through a pinhole
and my heart's a sieve




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