John West
The Endurance of Hospitals
It squats here
people arrive and leave
a man in a paper space suit
scrubs down the walls
in the single room
in which Frank Norman died last night
he mortared Hep A at the walls
for his last three weeks
once-in-20-years Gas Gangrene
in the delivery ward
necessitates a paint job overnight
but mostly it's just Dettol
wiped across plastic
and the bed parts its arms
for its next guest
who has a 10% chance
of the bill for the stay
their life
trolley- and bed-ends
snap at the walk rail
which doubles up
as a re-paintable guard
and outside
the moon grows fat
then thin
thin then fat
people arrive and leave
a man in a paper space suit
scrubs down the walls
in the single room
in which Frank Norman died last night
he mortared Hep A at the walls
for his last three weeks
once-in-20-years Gas Gangrene
in the delivery ward
necessitates a paint job overnight
but mostly it's just Dettol
wiped across plastic
and the bed parts its arms
for its next guest
who has a 10% chance
of the bill for the stay
their life
trolley- and bed-ends
snap at the walk rail
which doubles up
as a re-paintable guard
and outside
the moon grows fat
then thin
thin then fat
Page(s) 28
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