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HOSPITAL (Remove filter)

Echoes of playtime

Walking around an empty hospital

Hearing voices, standing still

It's a strange feeling

Knowing there's no one on these grounds

 

Empty beds are blocking

As painful feelings are unlocking

Buried away in their homes

Scarred, anxious and alone

 

Yet the voices are protruding

Rebounding and allusive

Screams of fun and play come across

From another world now at a ...

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🌷(6)

Hospitalpainmental healthNHS

I still don't know if you're alive

When I close my eyes I see the sun rising over the ocean. I see a succession of cars. I hear you laugh. I see knives in the flesh. I see fireflies surrounding your body. I see endless trees and a forest I have never known. I see barbells and birds. Lots of birds. I see the moment you decided to give up, I see you vomiting in the toilet after taking the pills.  I see you telling me you thought the ...

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deathdepressiongirlhoodhospitaloverdoseguilt

hospital print (02/04/2024)

I can hear it

the bending wire
of the armistice: 
twisted and tined 
plucked high and fine
and bitten
for a taste of fast and cheap iron

a prickling thrill provokes 
like a high water line
makes me wonder
what chokes 
and what it takes
to be full
to be whole 

instead, 
the best I can do is a side of myself
and a garnish of mint 
(for color)
even while raked raw
naked,  id ...

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🌷(1)

hospitalnon binarydysphoricself loveself harmless

Kelp

I've got entangled in pure mystery

never endured a coquette so lewd,

her words twinkle like spangles but

despite all the glitter she's shrewd

 

I've come across some fast workers

in moments she had me unzipped

I'm far from a slouch at glib patter

in her sea-soiled face rests a crypt

 

its like being a drunken fire-eater

on a water-bed playing with fire

I've grow...

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asphyxiacoviddrowninghospitallungsnurseseaSiren

Flo

can't breathe and his kidneys have had it

he's a dead duck if the machinery ceases

I could do anything I wanted with the guy

as a girl I used to pull my dolls to pieces

 

he gets no visitors so what is the point?

zero enquiries or flowers, no one cares

scant thanks when I change his nappies

all I ever get is moans and blank stares

 

does he have a clue how much this c...

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syringematronnursehospitalcomatoseFlorence Nightingale

Renee By A Thread

Audio reading: https://soundcloud.com/tomalexwrite/renee-by-a-thread

 

Down the corridor, comes a scream
Was it physical pain
or the horror of finally learning
the way this game is turning
They took your clothes
gave you a gown
there was nothing to do but lay right down
Now, the machine breathes
for you
hung by a thread and leaving soon

Faint flashes behind tired eyelids
recalle...

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coronaviruscovidcovid19deathHealthHealthcarehospitalhospitalskey workerlockdownWOLBeyondTheStorm

On Hearing a Loved One's Fate ...              E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle [1]

He spoke

And then it seemed

The mist and perhaps my mind swirled round

A sickening looping helix

From that still small sphere of heat.

In the chill of a dusk we descended

Beneath a frosted sickle moon

Descended into the Stygian blackness

Of land above a still lake

From which no lunar gleam escaped

The frigid darkness was intense, solid

Consuming all my senses -

...

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🌷(1)

ConsultantConsultationDarknessHellHospitalInfernoPrognosisTime

Living My Own Death

I can tell you exactly when it happened. I was sat on one of those plasticy leatherette chairs. You know the ones, they have them in all hospitals, they're easy to wipe clean if someone has a little accident. I had my hand clasped about my wife's fingers and though I knew I was squeezing them too hard she didn't complain.

She, the doctor that is, or should I say consultant? Anyway, she leant in...

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cancerdeathhospitalhopelifelove

The Royal Free

The Royal Free hums its energetic life

As I sit musing in my garden

A background drone always there

As the hospital is always open for care

It's summer so the trees mask its physical presence 

Just the joined up sound of health and excellence

We moved here with two small boys

And thought being near The Free might be handy

Energetic boys in an energetic city

Who knows the...

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boyscaringhospitalRoyal Free

BRAVE FACE

How brave, in reality, is a ‘brave face’?

A facade shared, it would seem,

by the majority of the human race.

 

Beneath the flaking paint of a painted mask

lies a truth too long and painful to explain

no matter how oft you care to ask.

 

How long before the cracks become too wide

to conceal with powders and creams

and the crimson smile starts to slide.

 

How long...

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MASKDEATHDYINGHOSPITALCRACKSFEARILLNESS

Ward 34

 

Ward 34
 
See old Tommy in bed five, limps because his hip’s sore
Its not old age….. Its shrapnel, from fights in the second world war
 
He’s not as agile as back then and he’s got some hearing loss
But once protected our freedom…….. Won the Victoria Cross.
 
Now resigned to his bed, to be fed cared and watered
But once stormed Normandy beaches, watched...

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war heroherohospitalagesecond world warveteran

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