Friday, 13 July 2018

Blue badge blues poem

Hospital confidential 

A confident stride
the prelude to 
tugged curtains
a breathless introduction

Conversations ensue
maybe the most painful
of our lives
behind paper screens

We don’t hear all the words
but certainly get the tone
the grimness in the phrases
the timescales dodged

Biopsies, scans
lives changed
behind those paper defined boundaries
between your life and theirs

iPads and magazines are stared at
in desperate attempts
to divert attention
from this stranger 

This stranger who’s life has just collided
with ours as I sit uninvited 
a mere bystander
in their unfolding disaster

Curtains pulled back
Words digested
Heads come up
Sad smiles make contact

Another hospital confidential
story unfolds 
and for that moment we are one
in these four beds

All our stories are shared
our tears witnessed
our pain cursed
our lonely fears observed

As I gather up for home
these women’s stories
will be part of my own story here
and be part of my tears shed

tears that slowly relieve the trauma 

and leave it behind

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