Hospitals depress me
They remind me of prison cells
Its where, frowning people in pain
Sleep on tube framed squeaky beds
A heavy scent of aspirin
Greets you on the door
Far away in a corner
A baby’s shrill cries echo
Like thunder rolling from a heavy cloud
Hospitals depress me
They tell me what is dying and death
Fluid-like through the creaks of the window
Slow as the shadows of the setting sun
Hospitals make me angry
And I
Pout about and declare
No, not at all
I am not getting an injection!
But cruel, shrewd and witty people in white
May force you,
Drag you,
Hurl you in a corner
To inject what they call is “medicine”
To me a needle that is made to hurt
Hospitals depress me
Its where I remember
What pain is
What are
sorrow’s
And what being fortunate means
Which is when
You walk about the world
Smelling
Touching
Feeling
Tasting
Hearing
Speaking, or yet still
Singing!
You know you are rich when
You touch a thing and feel its softness
Drink from a glass to taste the deliciousness of nature
Open your mouth to speak
And you can
Listen, and you can
Hospitals depress me
Even when the early morning beams shine through heavy bright curtains
On a shiny marble floor
Even when nurses wear beautiful hair-clips
And put on a 24 hour smile
Hospitals depress me
They whisper
About times
When money had been the price to live
About people
Who sing lullabies to their dying children
Hospitals depress me
Where a single silent gesture tells thousand stories of disease, of illness
Of sickness
Of loss
Of a loved one….
Until silence spreads
Far and wide
And there is only quietness
And far away the sound of the baby crying
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