When I came,
She lay half-asleep in pain
At the sick and maim,
After her foot had sprained.
Around me, a concatenation of rooms lay,
In which sick humans stay, in which they die,
Where I went that day, hurrying my pace.
I found dreariness smeared on her face
And knew the silent death-pang in her fear,
Which sang a weakness in her voice,
But then I held her and was near.
I feared my tears would spill
In their Intensive Care Unit;
But even mine wouldn't heal,
At that expansive mega-clinic;
Instead, I felt my tears fail.
I caught some pining looks in her eye,
Could hear her troubled breath in my ear,
Which were nakedly written in her eye.
I saw a hidden message on the wall,
Then imagined the trouble in her soul;
Yet I knew she’d walk and be well.
I read a strange word above a door,
Scrawled boldly, as if to offer hope:
LEBENSRETTUNGS...: it stared at me;
And I glanced at it and just scoffed,
For what could a mere word mean
When simply sprawled upon a wall,
While a dear one here lay so frail?
I didn't get my queries solved,
But did regret my silly thoughts.
I sang a million words, then I stopped,
In that small, walled room binding us;
Then saw sleepless looks in her eyes,
And yet, a moment next, she had slept!
We sat inside the quiet of where she lay,
As she also sat - with her head raised,
In the small, neat room surrounding us,
Where I spent a short time and some words
As she strangely remained pale on her face:
The brow of her eye drooping weakly, sleepily.
Perhaps her tiredness was why she’d soon slept,
Then woken up sheepishly, mumbling easily
About how so often she sleepily escaped.
I gave her a loving smile, then I left her.
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Author
