So here we all sit in heavy silence,
With the Odd dull Whispered Word sailing by.
Waiting. For Waiting is the damnedest part,
Averted Eye contact a lifetime taught,
A thousand and One times the leaflet Read:
'Would you like to follow me Mr Bruce',
She asks in a measured clear Sing Song Voice.
And so he wanders off to hear his fate
From a Doctor sat with Thumb, North or South,
Like a Medical Roman Emperor.
Magnified Words falling with a dense tread.
While outside Nurses hurry in their Scrubs-
The Uniform of Pubescent dreams gone,
Carrying Blood Samples and Nasal Swabs,
And Bedpans discreetly hid from our view;
The last indignity that awaits us.
And with Hips swinging there's an urgent need,
To take her away from this, Blue Angel:
The Wet smell of the Clinically Clean,
The Constant Reassurance of 'All's Well',
A Spoonful of Sugar helps the Medicine,
And Declare my all to the 'Mouth of Truth',
To know that we will always have Paris,
Carve her Name in a Poem for the Ages.
But Dreams are all we have, a Vital Fuel,
The Sole difference between Stick or Twist,
Or the Thousand Miles between YES and NO.
And here I feel is the Price of Being:
For we begin in Hospital and End;
A Train Station of Hello's and Goodbyes.
And Between Bookends to Biography-
Supermarkets and days out to Margate.
-
Author:
Kevin Hulme (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: July 22nd, 2026 19:26
- Comment from author about the poem: Sitting in a Hospital recently Thinking. Wrote this in a Philip Larkin way.
- Category: Reflection
- Views: 7
- Users favorite of this poem: Tristan Robert Lange
Offline)
Comments4
There is a cost to being alive. Every life stage in progression has hammered that nail in deeper and deeper. Medical spaces are our bookends that frame a melee of the mundane and fragile. 🙏🕊️
So true. Thank you for Reading and sending a Comment.
As someone recently hospitalised for a month, far too much of that felt eerily familiar.
Congrats to Phillip Larkin and, of course the current author. LOL
Thank you for the Comment and Reading.
Hope you are well. 👍
It makes one wonder about purpose. The beginning of life and the end of it all in one spot. Nicely written. Thought provoking what is the meaning of life.
If I remember the Meaning of life was 42.
Thanks for Reading as always. 👍
You are most welcome and that is correct
Kevin, I know how a hospital can collapse an entire lifetime into a single anxious hour. Suddenly every mundane day feels precious, every loved one indispensable, and every deferred dream terribly urgent. This hit me hard, my friend! 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
You're correct in all you say. Thank you. And for the fave. 👍
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