Saturday 13 September 2014

Close to the town centre

Close to the town centre
Where many people go
Is a place I used to know

It is a botanic park
Green with calm serenity
Just the place for picnic tea

There's a gaunt drab building near by
Peering through the swaying trees
It’s a hospital one sees

There anxiety rules the roost
And a visit one should not pay
That would surely spoil your day

Sure there’s fruit, jello and kindly words
But also blood and ouch and tests
And strict rules for family guests

Meals are bad and blood they love
Then they’ll waken you in fright
As they pester you at night

Should you care to walk that park
And calmly feed the little birds
Think of me lying in my turds

“I’m busy now patient X
Leave your bed you must not dare
For others please have some care”

12 comments:

  1. A hospital visit will definitely dissolve one's pride and remove sadness.Really a lovely poem.

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  2. Yuk to the penultimate stanza! As for the rest: you've summed it up well.
    I used to think of the hospital as a comforting place where I went to get better. Not any more.

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  3. I think you took charge of these words...not in anger..but with a humanity which highlighted even more how hospitals (or more often hospital workers) get it so very wrong at times..

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  4. Rightly depicted old egg! One risked getting more sick in a hospital. Drained our resolve seeing all those others suffering! Great write!

    Hank

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  5. What must be admitted, the workers are doing their best….but not all issnesses can be cured. So to go to the hospital doesn't necessarily mean you will get better…maybe worst days.

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  6. Being pestered at night is certainly the one thing that I remember from a hospital stay many years ago. Most annoying!

    One More Whirl with Basho

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  7. Hospital stays are never one's greatest experience. Now there are fewer nurses and attendants, and then there's the danger of catching something worse that what you were in there for!

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  8. At least it's in the park, hope for sooner recovery and walking home...

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  9. Lucky are the few who have never had to go there...

    Elizabeth

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  10. Fortunately I've only ever been to a hospital as a visitor, never a patient! Have I just tempted fate?

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  11. A sad place to visit Hank ... a worse place to have to stay ... more than a hospital, this seems like a "sanatorium" or a "home" both which can be terrible. Powerfully written and very scary.

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