Her bright eyes take in the busy ward
Assessing the day’s patients.
She pauses at each bed as she counts;
Two fractured legs,
One bruised head,
A bleeding nose,
Broken toes.
It was going to be a long day
At Dollies’ Hospital.©
…today in A New Ulster, pgs 51-52
Eyes lose focus
Mind drifts away
Far from this,
Far from the noisy cafe
Far from our coffee and cake
Far from you.
Body tenses
Face contorts in pain
Hit by the horror within,
‘Where have you gone?’
You say, and I smile,
Here and now is all that matters.
The morning you left us I heard birdsong
and the chatter of children.
I heard the newspaper land on the doormat
and the letterbox rattle with post
I heard rain splatter the windows
and the rush of wind in the trees.
You lived so long
in silence,
I heard it all
for you.
So Gran,
I hope you now
hear it too ©
Morning breeze
Tickles treetops
As white clouds
Chase through blue sky
Fresh grass cuttings
Litter the borders
Where daffodils
Soak up the sun
I see spring unfold
From my window
On the ward©
I have two poems in the April issue of A New Ulster-happy reading!
You say,
‘We just have to hope.’
But I can’t,
Can’t even hope.
I’m too tired,
Of trying.
After so many
Steps back,
I can’t
See forward.
I’m just
Too busy
Getting through.
So I say,
‘Hope for me’©
Midmorning sun
Streams in
Floods the room
Warm and bright,
As regulars chat
Over tea and biscuits
And trolley service
Continues.
Attached to drips
Poorly patients
Struggle to settle
Losing their battle
With sleep,
As monitors beep
And ward round
Continues. ©
Another poem published, this time by the Barefoot Review
http://www.barefootreview.org/winter2012.html#rachel_sutcliffe