Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Julia Casterton

print this page

The Hospital Café

That's how I think of it, though I had to leave the hospital
And walk through a carpark and a little wood,
Eucalyptus and pine, strewn with empty water bottles
To find it. Past a broken place

With hides hung out to dry, and down an incline
Where begonias and marigolds grew, into a dark bar
With Spanish lace at the windows, where a quiet waiter
Laid white linen quickly. Inside

We all looked the same,
Heads down, dying for some real food,
Hardly able to ask, but asking
When the waiter asked Qué quieres?

What we wanted
Was for the sick one to recover.
But no one could tell the future
So all we did was our time in the hospital

And, since there was nowhere for us to sleep but chairs,
Lift our spirits with raciones and a little wine.
Head down, dying for some real food
We walked through the little wood each day

Past a broken place
With hides hung out to dry.

 


Julia Casterton lives in London where she teaches for the City Lit, Open University and University of North London. She has published three small collections of poetry and Creative Writing: A Practical Guide (Macmillan 1986, 1998).

 

Page(s) 23

Back to top